《Plague Wizard [A Souls-Like LitRPG]》
I. Arbiter of Souls
It was a sunny afternoon when Riley Blake looked both ways to cross the street, stepped off the curb, and was promptly smashed by a drunk driver who ran the red light and took the corner at a truly breakneck speed. It was a blessedly instantaneous death.
From his point of view he had started to blink as his foot left the sidewalk, heard a terrible shriek of rubber on asphalt as he closed his eyes, and opened his eyes to find the urban sprawl around him had entirely vanished. Instead of standing on a city street he was in the middle of a strange void that seemed to stretch on for infinity. The sky above him was a blanket of glittering stars and rainbow-hued nebulae.
Though the region looked like the deepest void of space, it was an oddly warm area.
¡°Oh...¡± he simply said, reaching up and scratching at his russet mop of hair.
He knew at once that he was dead. A strange instinctive knowledge that his very soul reacted to. Yet he felt oddly calm about it. Either the reality had yet to sink in for him, or the tranquillity of this strange void had numbed whatever shock or horror he should have felt.
SO. HERE YOU ARE. A NEW WARDEN.
The voice that addressed him was dull and leaden, heavier a tectonic plate and older than stardust. A strange chill ran through him. His scrawny body turned, stepping on a strange translucent pane that seemed to be the ¡®floor¡¯ of this void, and he had to crane his neck to look into the eyes of the... thing that had just spoken.
It was a vast and towering spire of blackness, more than twice his height, the edges of his form smoking and rippling. He was pitch black all the way up to his head, which seemed to be a mask of carved stone that vaguely resembled a human face. Two burning garnets filled the sockets.
¡°Who... are you?¡± It was all Riley could think to ask.
THE ARBITER. I OVERSEE THE DEATHS OF HUMANS. YOU ARE DEAD, AND SO YOU HAVE BEEN SENT TO ME.
The voice was deep and thunderous. And yet it was less that the Arbiter spoke aloud, and more than his words echoed through the back of Riley¡¯s mind.
¡°Are you... God?¡±
NOT AS YOU WOULD UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT. BUT I SUPPOSE, FROM WHERE YOU STAND, ANY DISTINCTION WOULD BE MEANINGLESS AT BEST.
Well, Riley supposed he could take some amusement from knowing that every theologian in history was way off the mark when it came to the afterlife.
THIS IS THE POSTMORTEM. IT IS A SPACE THAT EXISTS BETWEEN SPACES, WHERE SOULS MIGRATE BETWEEN PLANES. FOR MOST, THE TRANSITION IS SO FAST THAT THEY DO NOT EVEN REGISTER IT. YOU, HOWEVER, ARE A SPECIAL CASE.
Riley¡¯s jaw hung slightly ajar. ¡°N-now hang on, I... I¡¯m really not anything special! I-I¡¯m just a medical intern!¡± His clothing was still in tact, at least, his scrubs showing none of the blood that had gushed across his mortal remains. He reached up with a trembling hand, lifting the lanyard carrying his ID. ¡°W-whatever you want, you¡¯ve probably made some kind of mistake.¡±
I DO NOT MAKE ¡®MISTAKES¡¯, RILEY BLAKE. YOUR SOUL IS MARKED. YOU HAVE GREAT POTENTIAL, AND NOW THAT POTENTIAL SHALL BE PUT TO USE. YOU, LIKE MANY OTHERS BEFORE YOU, WILL BE PUT ON THE PATH OF STRIFE.
¡°G-great potential? Who are you, my mother?¡± Riley asked.
The living spire of shadows bent down slightly, drawing his masked visage closer and closer to Riley. He shrank under that burning gaze.
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THERE ARE POWERS AT WORK FAR BEYOND YOUR UNDERSTANDING. BUT YOU WILL, IN TIME, COME TO GRASP THE REALITY OF THE SITUATION. IT¡¯S NOT MY JOB TO HOLD YOUR HAND, AND I¡¯D RATHER NOT BELABOUR THIS SITUATION FOR MUCH LONGER. COME, CHOOSE YOUR CLASS.
¡°Class?¡± Riley asked, blinking in bewilderment.
A strange throb radiated in the back of his mind, sending a shudder down the length of his body. Blue light shimmered on the edges of his vision, followed by a series of card-like shapes flashing into his eyes. No matter where he looked, the cards followed him.
YOU WILL BE IN GREAT DANGER SOON ENOUGH. IT WOULD BE WISE TO PICK A CLASS TO AID IN YOUR SURVIVAL.
¡°What?!¡± Riley squawked.
HM. INTRIGUING. CLASSES ARE USUALLY CONSTRUCTED TO FIT THE APTITUDE OF EACH INDIVIDUAL. IN YOUR CASE, SOME OF THESE OPTIONS ARE... UNORTHODOX.
The cards glowed brighter and became more defined, each one depicting a humanoid figure. Though they were all bizarre in some way or another, drawn like characters from an old medieval manuscript.
¡°Back up, back up, what do you mean great danger¡¯? I thought being dead meant you like... didn¡¯t have to do anything! Eternal paradise and shit like that!¡±
NO.
Riley stared up at the shadowy figure of the Arbiter, his jaw hanging slightly ajar. In doing so, his eye wandered to one of the cards and focused on it. The image depicted a scrawny man in a flowing white robe, clutching a rapier in one hand and a coil of fire in the other.
Church Silencer.
Devout assassin in the service of the Imperial Cathedral. Adept at swift attacks, stealth, and sporting a minor aptitude for holy magic.
Riley blinked in confusion. His eye roamed again, now focusing on the next card in the sequence. This one depicted a man wearing a wolf pelt cloak, holding a bow and machete.
Stray Huntsman.
Outlaws from the hinterlands, living beyond the reign of the kingdoms. Skilled at ranged combat and naturally gifted with alchemy.
One by one his eyes checked the classes on offer, and Riley found himself increasingly confused by what he was seeing. He had played his fair share of video games in the past, plenty of RPGs for that matter, and some of these classes seemed far different to anything he was used to.
¡®Mad Bomber¡¯, ¡®Grave Warden¡¯, ¡®Sewer Rat¡¯... Strange classes, each one looking filthy or deranged in some capacity. And while the weirdness was one thing, what annoyed Riley the most was that few of these classes seemed even remotely useful.
The Mad Bomber sounded like he was more of a danger to himself than anyone around him!
¡°These are all meant to be based on my abilities?¡± he asked.
YES.
The arbiter sounded slightly surprised, hints of confusion filtering into his tone.
YOUR INTERESTS IN LIFE WERE OF A MORE SCHOLARLY BEND. THUS NONE OF YOUR CLASSES ARE PARTICULARLY COMBAT ORIENTED. EVEN SO, I QUESTION THE LOGIC IN SOME OF THESE CLASSES.
Riley¡¯s eyes eventually came to rest on a card that had a rather imposing figure on it. Tall and lean, adorned in a pitch black robe, a beak-like mask covering his face.
Plague Wizard.
Disciples of the dark goddess Aqar¡¯Ghul, wielding pestilence as their weapon. Naturally gifted at magic, their spells involve controlling disease and miasma.
Riley frowned. He knew all too well how dangerous diseases could be. The power to control plagues at will? A powerful weapon indeed. And, in the past, he had often leaned toward playing wizards and spellcasters in games. He was under no illusions when it came to his own physical abilities.
If he was in a fight, he¡¯d prefer to have range on his side.
¡°Look, I... I don¡¯t understand any of this. What do you mean when you say I¡¯ll be in danger?¡± His hand drifted toward the image of the Plague Wizard. ¡°Why.. me? What¡¯s going to happen to me?¡±
THE PATH OF STRIFE. YOU WILL BE SENT TO ANOTHER WORLD, AN AGENT OF THE GODS CHOSEN TO CLEANSE THE AGENTS OF THE MALFORMED CHAOS. YOU MUST SEEK THE AGENTS OF ROT, WAR, DEATH, AND CONQUEST. SLAY THEM WHERE YOU FIND THEM, AND GROW STRONGER FROM YOUR VICTORIES.
Riley stared at him in bewilderment for several moments. ¡°What?¡± This was the afterlife? Being sent off to some other world to fight... monsters?
THE WAR AGAINST THE MALFORMED CHAOS IS ONE WITHOUT END. ONE THAT MUST BE WAGED ETERNALLY. YOU, A WARDEN, BEAR A SOUL CAPABLE OF CONTENDING WITH THIS THREAT. IF YOU HAVE THE RESOLVE AND STRENGTH TO EMBRACE YOUR POTENTIAL, AT LEAST.
¡°That doesn¡¯t help at all!¡± Riley cried. The more the Arbiter spoke, the more confused Riley became. The only way this bizarre situation could feel even more Kafkaesque was if he suddenly transformed into a giant insect.
The card of the Plague Wizard flashed in his eyes.
Class selected. Do you wish to be a Plague Wizard?
The voice in his head was soft and feminine, a stark contrast to the grave and booming tones of the Arbiter. It did little to put him at ease.
¡°I... guess so,¡± Riley murmured. With one or two exceptions, the other classes hardly seemed appealing. Plagues, however, seemed too good to pass up as far as weapons went. Assuming, at least, he had total control over them.
The cards vanished from Riley¡¯s vision in streams of glittering blue light. A warm light washed over him, pulling a small gasp from the young man. He swayed, nearly falling over from the strange rush of sensations that assaulted his body.
YOUR CLASS IS CHOSEN, AS IS YOUR DESTINY. GO FORTH, WARDEN. CLEANSE THE CHAOS FROM KERBEROS. YOUR ORACLE WILL SHOW YOU THE WAY.
¡°W-wait, hold up, I have so many more questions-¡±
IT IS NOT MY JOB TO ANSWER THEM. FAREWELL.
The Arbiter raised a clawed shadowy hand, gesturing vaguely toward Riley. A white light flew forth and suddenly engulfed him, blinding him. The Postmortem melted away before another syllable could form on his lips.
Spirited away to another world as a freshly-minted Plague Wizard.
II. A Servant of AqarGhul.
Riley opened his eyes, slowly recovering his vision after being near-blinded by the white flash. It was a stark contrast to his new surroundings: A grimy and dark prison cell, mould and moss sprouting from almost every brick while water dripped from somewhere around him.
¡°Oh... my aching everything.¡± The pain in his head subsided as he suddenly became aware of how muffled his voice was. Then the sudden awareness of something being wrapped around his head. He reached up hesitantly, his hands now covered by thick gloves, and touched around his face. A mask, with a carved bird-like beak, covered his face and was joined to a cowl that wrapped snugly around his head.
¡°Agh. Didn¡¯t think picking this class would force me to cosplay as the guy...¡± Riley grumbled. He groped blindly as his vision adjusted to the gloom, and steadily became aware of the faint green glow in his eyes. Glass lenses in the mask, illuminating the strange cell.
It was better than nothing. But he¡¯d still need to get his hands on a torch. Then, when he had some light on his side, he could try and make sense of the... insanity he¡¯d just been thrown head first into.
In his fumbling, Riley¡¯s hand drifted to the upper right corner of his vision. A symbol, an eye inside a hexagon, suddenly flashed into existence. Riley gasped, lost his balance, and fell harshly on his side. A pained groan rose in his throat, muffled by his mask. Something clattered beside him in the darkness, quickly snapping him to attention.
A wooden staff, nearly as tall as his whole body, was resting beside him. The gnarled wood was unremarkable, save for one thing: A sharpened spike of obsidian at the top, held in place by an assortment of curling branches. Even in the darkness, it sparkled and glittered.
¡°Oh... right, wizards have staves. Feels cliche but I guess I could... stab someone with this pointy bit if they attack me.¡± Right... danger. The Arbiter made it clear he¡¯d be facing some kind of... Rot. It would have helped if the big creepy bastard had bothered to explain anything.
He lifted his hand with great care, reaching for the utmost corner of his vision again. Once more the eyeball symbol flashed to life in his periphery. He focused on it, causing it to glow brighter. Suddenly a menu appeared in his eye, dominating his entire field of view.
Name: Riley Blake
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Class: Plague Wizard
¡°The afterlife is a goddamn video game. This is Hell, isn¡¯t it? I committed some stupid obscure sin, and this is what Hell is supposed to be,¡± he muttered.
The menu had an image off to the right side, a 3D model of Riley himself. Though the figure was covered from head to toe, Riley recognised his own slouching posture instinctively. The robe itself that adorned him was crisp and expertly tailored, all black except for the white fringe on the hem and sleeves. The boots, only barely visible, were made of leather and sensibly designed. Ideal for trekking over vast distances. The gloves of his hand were similarly sturdy and practical, only visually distinct for the strange white symbols on the back of each hand.
Riley narrowed his eyes to better focus on the image. The symbol on the gloves, the colour of bleached bone, was like an X with a diamond on top. Whatever it meant, Riley had no idea.
A label was positioned under the 3D model: Inventory. Riley motioned toward it, and was greeted with a long list of the objects in his position. Which included very little beyond the clothes on his back. Curious, he focused on the first item on the list.
Plague Wizard¡¯s Mask
The mask of a Plague Wizard, devout servants of Aqar¡¯Ghul. Forged from boiled leather and carved elderwood, it provides little protection against physical damage but is surprisingly resilient against magic and toxins.
¡®The chosen wizards of Aqar¡¯Ghul dress themselves to resemble her favourite plague-carriers: Carrion birds who devour the fallen, and spread miasma with their wings.¡¯
¡°Interesting,¡± Riley mumbled. He moved to the next item in the list.
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Plague Wizard¡¯s Robe
The robes of a Plague Wizard, devout servants of Aqar¡¯Ghul. Forged from boiled leather and shadowmesh weave, it provides little protection against physical damage but is surprisingly resilient against magic and toxins.
¡®Black is the colour of Aqar¡¯Ghul, who adorns herself in a shroud of night and dwells in the darkest underbellies of the world. Her servants, as ever, strive to emulate her.¡¯
Riley scratched at the side of his head. The more he learned, the more confused he got. From what little he had pulled from the Arbiter, he assumed he was meant to be fighting some sort of insidious evil. But Aqar¡¯Ghul hardly sounded like a pleasant deity.
He scanned around himself, briefly fearful that she had somehow heard him. He had been something of an atheist before he died, but after meeting the Arbiter... anything felt possible.
He sighed, pulled himself to his feet, and checked the next item.
Plague Wizard¡¯s Gloves
The gloves of a Plague Wizard, devout servants of Aqar¡¯Ghul. Designed to safely handle magical energies and corrosive chemicals.
¡®The symbol on the back is an ancient emblem, branded onto the flesh of heretics by the Imperial Cathedral. Followers of Aqar¡¯Ghul, and similarly reviled deities, adopted it as a symbol in defiance of their persecutors.
Boots
Simple leather boots, designed to handle all manner of rough terrain.
¡®Come war, famine, or plague, cobblers are always going to be in business.¡¯
Riley rolled his eyes. Perhaps he shouldn¡¯t have expected a simple pair of boots to have some deep lore attached to them. Still, he was at least a little intrigued.
From the sound of things, this place (wherever ¡®this place¡¯ even was) had some measure of society to it. If he could find a decent bed to lay in, all the better.
Obsidian Staff
A simple wizard¡¯s staff, carved from sturdy wood and sporting a sharpened spike of obsidian. A highly functional, if basic, tool for sorcery.
¡®Magic is born from the movement of the stars. How fitting, then, that metal from the heavens is such a good conductor for it.¡¯
Riley inspected his staff, tapping the sharpened tip a few times.
¡°So I do have magic. Okay... uh.. how do I... do it?¡± he asked himself, his voice barely above a murmur. He took a step forward, inching to the exit of his prison cell while the menu continued to dominate his vision. He could see that, fortunately, the door had rusted and fallen apart over the years, allowing for an easy escape.
Aside from being dressed in a much more uncomfortable outfit, he didn¡¯t feel any different. He would have assumed a wizard would feel more... wizardly than he currently did.
He scanned his inventory again, halting when he spied another label on his menu: Spells.
¡°Oh. Duh.¡± He motioned to that label, the menu shifting again. Two icons greeted him, both listed as being ¡®equipped.¡¯ Both images showed a gloved hand, one cradling a cloud of white mist while the other carried a similar purple cloud.
He hovered over the first one, bringing up a new window of text.
Blinding Mist
Plague wizardry. Releases a cloud of mist that causes blindness and intense eye irritation on anyone caught within it. Low damage, but strong crowd control.
¡®The first lesson imparted to the wizards of Aqar¡¯Ghul. Those who spurn us are blind in spirit, thus shall we render them blind in flesh too.¡¯
Riley narrowed his eyes and focused on the second spell.
Choking Haze
Plague wizardry. Creates a cloud of mist that renders breathable air toxic, choking and bloodying the throats of those who breathe it.
¡®The second lesson imparted to the wizards of Aqar¡¯Ghul. Those who speak blasphemies to us shall have their lying throats scoured, and their words shall become as blood.¡¯
Riley read through both spells again, but found himself no more thrilled. The spells sounded useful, of course, but neither of them seemed adept at actually killing enemies. He spared another glance to the pointed tip of his staff.
The metal certainly looked sturdy. He cautiously directed it toward the wall of the cell and scraped it against the bricks. It cut a neat path clean through the stone. ¡°Better than nothing,¡± Riley mumbled. Though he was still no more pleased about this situation.
It was, admittedly, not entirely in line with the Hippocratic Oath to contemplate using a staff in such a way, but Hippocrates had never been in this situation. Presumably. Lastly, he took note of a final entry in the Spells category: Passive Abilities.
Commune with Vermin
Aqar¡¯Ghul blesses her followers with the ability to speak with plague carriers, and direct them. Rats, carrion birds, and foul insects will be open to communicating with you.
Now that he had a better grasp of his possessions and abilities, he supposed the only thing to do was go forward. Which would entail a lot of roaming around blindly, since the Arbiter had given him nothing to work with.
He finally reached the mouth of his cell and dared to peer out from the doorway. All around him was darkness, cells stretching on for a considerable distance. Deep pools of water lined the floor, while icicles and a bed of frost dominated the ceiling. Riley didn¡¯t feel too cold, personally, so perhaps the robe was thicker than it felt.
Riley took a deep breath and finally worked up the nerve to leave his cell.
¡°Ah. There you are.¡±
The voice made him stumble, nearly knocking him off balance until he gripped the bars of another cell door. Riley whipped his gaze around, his eyes resting on a figure who was sitting just off to the side of his cell.
A woman, dressed in a flowing white and red robe, a hood covering the top of her head. Curly strands of scarlet hair poked out of the sides, framing a pale and angelic face.
Slowly, she lifted her head to look Riley in the eye. He recoiled, gripping his staff tighter, as he looked at her eyes. They were slitted, like those of a serpent.
¡°My noble Warden,¡± she said, speaking in a low, soft voice. ¡°I am Arubis. I shall serve thee, as your Oracle."
III. Warden and Oracle
Riley stared at Arubis in confusion, keeping a firm grip on his staff. Snake-eyes aside, she seemed totally normal. And she wasn¡¯t making moves to kill him either. Still, she was another symptom of this incredibly strange situation.
¡°My... Oracle,¡± he murmured beneath his mask. ¡°Yeah, the Arbiter said something about that. What does that entail?¡±
¡°You are a Warden. It is your role to walk the Path of Strife. To that end, you kill monsters born of Rot and Chaos. I, your Oracle, guide you to your destination and help you hone your strength.¡± Her voice was soft and melodic, tinged with an accent Riley couldn¡¯t put his finger on.
Riley gave her a flat stare. That didn¡¯t explain much of anything, but she was at least nicer than the Arbiter had been. ¡°I still don¡¯t understand. What¡¯s... a Warden, exactly?¡±
¡°An agent chosen by the gods. One who maintains order and roots out those who wish to devour all that is good in the world. The Path of Strife is your sacred mission, a road without end that is filled with countless battles.¡±
¡°Oh.¡± Riley narrowed his eyes behind the lenses of his mask. ¡°Is that all?¡± Why in the world did he have to get roped into this?
¡°I am sure that it sounds difficult and daunting, but your soul possesses the strength to endure. If you are willing to rise to the challenge.¡± Arubis rose to her feet, and much to Riley¡¯s shock it seemed that her robes were utterly devoid of any dust or dirt. She seemed utterly immaculate, a vision of beauty that stood in stark contrast to their grim, dingy surroundings.
¡°Insidious forces are rife across the cosmos, seeking to tear worlds apart at the seams. It is only through the efforts of noble Wardens, such as yourself, that chaos is pruned and kept at bay.¡± She offered him a beautiful smile, attractive enough to distract from her serpentine gaze.
¡°And you... make me stronger?¡±
¡°Yes. Foes you slay will leave behind their Essence. And with this Essence, I can channel it into your body to render you stronger.¡±
Like a video game, Riley noted. But ultimately this would be far more dangerous than any video game by the sound of things.
He opened the menu again, his eyes roaming further down the list of labels. ¡®Stats¡¯ was just beneath ¡®Spells.¡¯ Curious, he reached for it and tapped on the label. A string of numbered stats appeared beneath his biographical data.
Vitality 8
Capacity 12
Fortitude 8
Nimbleness 14
Might 7
Wisdom 16
Awareness 10
Riley furrowed his brow, reading the modest numbers. Whenever he focused on the title of each stat, he was greeted with a small blurb to explain the stats. Vitality reflected his total health. Capacity was for his maximum amount of mana. Fortitude referred to stamina, and his ability to resist certain elements.
Nimbleness was tied to skill with swift, precise weapons. Might, conversely, was for heavier weapons. It and Fortitude contributed to the available carrying weight of equipment. Wisdom controlled the strength of magical attacks, and dictated the complexity of spells an individual could learn.
Awareness, however, was worryingly vague.
¡®The ability to see the unseen.¡¯
Riley frowned, dismissed the menu, and pressed on down the frosty corridor. A chill breeze wafted over him, largely muted by the sturdy material of his robes. Arubis followed him, only a few paces behind.
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¡°What does ¡®see the unseen¡¯ mean?¡± he asked.
The strange woman offered him a calm smile. ¡°There are things that exist beyond mortal perception. A heightened Awareness allows you to perceive and interact with these forces. Your abilities in this regard will be... limited, for now. I would advise you to start slow if you wish to augment your Awareness.¡±
Somehow being sent to a lake of fire sounded slightly more pleasant than all of this. At least with the lake of fire, you knew exactly what you were going to get.
Their footsteps echoed through the vaulted corridor, which grew increasingly misty as they moved in deeper. Riley made a point of checking each cell, and found them to be either empty, or filled with bones that had been picked clean a long time ago.
¡°Where... are we?¡± he asked.
¡°Fort Bane. An outpost that sits upon the eastern border of the Vergoll Empire. It is, in their eyes, the very edge of civilization.¡±
Definitely high fantasy. Or, dark fantasy I guess. It was not deeply informative, as far as statements went, but Arubis was a thousand times more helpful than the Arbiter had been.
Another question formed on Riley¡¯s tongue, only to die as he rounded a corner and laid eyes on a moving figure. A shaggy, ape-like man with emaciated muscles and dried blood flaking his fur. Riley swallowed hard, gripping his staff as he laid eyes on the strange creature.
It was not, objectively, horrifying. But the sight of something so inhuman, so alien to the reality Riley had spent his whole life in, right before his eyes... it was enough to make him freeze up, briefly.
¡°A wretch,¡± Arubis said, as the hairy wildman turned his sunken eyes toward Riley. A growl rose on the creature¡¯s throat, his lips parting to reveal sharp, yellow teeth. ¡°Mad from hunger and isolation. It would be best to kill such beings quickly, lest they try and hinder you.¡±
¡°K-kill,¡± Riley repeated. The thing shambling him wasn¡¯t human. Probably barely intelligent, judging by that vacant look in his eyes. Still, Riley had never killed anything larger than a wasp in the past. To kill something that had been intelligent at one point...
The apeman groaned, raising his taloned hands into view. Great claws that could rend skin with all the ease of peeling an orange.
¡°Keep back!¡± Riley warned.
The beastly figure let out a horrid, gargling groan, lifting his claws and aiming for Riley¡¯s throat.
¡°I said... I said keep back!¡± He swung blindly, catching the shambling figure in the side of the head with his staff. The impact knocked him aside as if he were weightless, landing in a heap on the cold ground. He went still and didn¡¯t rise again.
Riley blinked in shock. ¡°Wretches like these have been left to rot for some time. Assuming they are not merely reanimated corpses,¡± Arubis said.
Riley hesitantly reached over, poking the corpse with the butt of his staff. It remained in place. Suddenly strange wisps of smoking darkness began to hiss from the apeman¡¯s remains. They flowed into Riley¡¯s body and vanished entirely.
Curious, he opened the menu again. A small bar had suddenly appeared at the bottom right corner of his vision:
Essence: 80.
¡°Oh man,¡± he murmured. ¡°Well, corpse or not, it had some of that Essence stuff in it.¡± He still wasn¡¯t thrilled at the thought of killing, even if it was as a means to make himself stronger. He supposed he¡¯d just have to get used to it. Anything after his head wouldn¡¯t think twice, after all.
¡°Only a spark. You will need much more if you wish to truly hone your strength,¡± Arubis replied, gently closing her eyes. ¡°But everyone must start somewhere.¡±
¡°And uh... will you be able to help me gather Essence?¡±
She shook her head. ¡°I do not fight. My abilities are geared toward the manipulation of Essence, and my abilities to interact with the material plane are limited. My apologies,¡± the Oracle explained. ¡°But I can, if needed, carry supplies for you. I have a magical means of storage at my disposal.¡±
Better than having to carry everything himself, Riley reasoned. If his Might was that low, an irritating realisation on his end, then it would be a chore to be his own paclmule.
They rounded another corner, another frozen corridor stretching ahead of them. Riley tensed, his eyes narrowing as he spotted three more wretched apemen lolling about. But, at the far end of the hallway, he caught sight of a winding stone staircase that led upward. A chance for escape?
¡°Do not feel bad about killing these creatures,¡± Arubis said, folding her hands together. ¡°Their lands have been raided and razed by the Empire. Those here, in Fort Bane, are prisoners left to rot. Killing them would be a kindness, for all they have been through.¡±
Riley looked into the nearest cell. A skeleton was chained to the far wall, half turned to dust by the passage of time. Left to rot, forgotten and abandoned. A rat scurried in the darkness of the cell, beady eyes looking directly into Riley¡¯s eyes.
Being a city slicker, Riley was no stranger to rodents. But, until now, he¡¯d never seen a rat longer than his damn forearm.
¡°Fine. Let¡¯s... give these spells a shot...¡± He took a few steps forward, until the half-dead creatures growled to attention at his approach. Riley raised his staff and took aim. ¡°So how does this work exactly?¡± He paused, thinking on the spells in his inventory, and tried to focus on the Blinding Mist.
His staff throbbed in his hands, the metal spike suddenly glowing pale purple. A cloud hissed from his weapon and flooded the corridor ahead of him. The apemen shrieked and thrashed about, blinded by the pestilent fog. It made it easy enough for Riley to walk up and knock two of them to the ground with swift strikes. The third, however, collapsed on his own. He gargled, clawing at his own eyes until his flesh was shredded beneath his talons.
He landed in a heap, bleeding out on the frosty ground. His essence flowed into Riley only a few seconds later.
Riley shuddered from head to toe. ¡°Creepy. Creepy, creepy, creepy,¡± he uttered. He picked up pace and hurried toward the stairs. Arubis followed a few paces behind him, calm and graceful.
IV. Second Death
They reached the crest of the narrow staircase, where the next floor seemed just as dusty and decrepit as the basement gaol. But, blessedly, Riley could see pale sunlight poking through the bars of the windows. The corridor ahead was still lined with jail cells, but at least he was able to see clearly now.
But the world beyond the windows did little to comfort him. All he could see were mountains shrouded in ice and fog. He couldn¡¯t see a single trace of civilization anywhere outside. But the had to be something out there, some town or city he could get his bearings in.
Riley pressed on, keeping his staff raised high.
¡°Halt, a moment,¡± Arubis gently said. Her voice cut through the silence like a knife, nearly making Riley drop his staff in shock. ¡°Have a look in the cell to your right.¡±
¡°Uh... alright.¡± He obliged her, craning his neck to peer around the collapsed bars of the cell. It looked, mostly, like any other cell they had passed. The only thing distinct was an ivory crystal sprouting from the floor. It came up to Riley¡¯s knee and emitted a pale glow.
¡°This is a Lodestone. It is a relic of sorts, a remnant of a vast power. They are a vital tool for Wardens, you will come to find.¡±
He inched closer to the Lodestone. It glowed in his presence, as if greeting him. ¡°Well, uh, first and foremost... what does it do?¡± he asked, blinking over at her in surprise.
¡°Many things. You may think of it as an anchor for your spirit. And, as you come across more of them, you can use them as a means of transposition. Instantaneous travel between any Lodestone attuned to you.¡±
¡°Fast travel? That... does sound useful,¡± he admitted. Riley paused and looked back at the Oracle. ¡°So, wait, who actually created these things?¡±
¡°I know not,¡± Arubis admitted. ¡°Their creation predates mine own. I suppose, by the standards of Oracles, I am something of a youth. Our knowledge has been ground down and splintered by the passage of centuries. They are... a vestige of sorts. A remnant of the divine.¡±
¡°And the divine forces are against this... Rot thing?¡±
Arubis nodded.
Riley left the cell behind and continued down the hall, the footsteps noisily echoing around him. At least some of the information was useful. He made a mental note of Arubis¡¯ lessons, and resolved to start writing things down whenever he got his hands on a pen and paper.
¡°But... what is the Rot? Or... the Chaos? I feel like those terms have been used interchangeably.¡± They passed a vaulted doorway, into a wide room filled with furniture that had collapsed under the groaning weight of time.
¡°The Malformed Chaos is something of a blanket term, for a myriad of evils. The Rot, and creatures spawned of it, is the most numerous and dangerous of these forces. But, in time, you will encounter the other aspects of Chaos.¡±
¡°So, what? This ¡®Rot¡¯ just want to kill and destroy things? For no reas-¡±
Riley¡¯s words were cut off by a horrid, enraged snarl. He spun around as a figure rose from the ground, adorned in rusty chainmail, a bloodstained black tabbard, and a helmet dented and scarred by the passage of time. He was a ragged man, more human than the apemen Riley had dealt with so far. But only barely.
His face, shrouded by a ragged beard, was marked by black pustules that were chewing into his brow. Even in the chaotic shock of seeing a spearman rushing his way, Riley couldn¡¯t help but briefly focus on the strange, oily tumours.
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He jumped back in a panic, only barely avoiding the head of the spear aimed for his throat. ¡°Holy crap!¡± he gasped, jumping back from more thrusts.
The spearman was, at least, faster and more aggressive than the apemen had been. Though his scrawny neck made it clear that time had not been kind to his body either.
Riley swung blindly, the sharpened tip of his staff slicing a chunk from the spearman¡¯s jaw. He was sent stumbling aside, a pained growl rising in his throat. Riley expected him to collapse as the apemen did, dead from a single hit.
Instead, the spearman gripped his weapon tighter and lunged at Riley with newfound speed and fury. The attack was so surprising, so swift, that Riley could only barely react before the sharpened tip punched clean through his sternum Riley gagged and gargled, all the air shunted from his lungs in an instant. The pain was unlike anything he had ever felt before, an agony beyond compare.
The spearman flung Riley to the ground and wrenched the barbed spear free. Blackness flooded Riley¡¯s vision.
DEATH.
Riley opened his eyes.
He sucked in air in a frantic gasp, his gloved hands wildly patting at his chest. No blood, no wound, no trace that anything had happened to him at all. Riley rapidly scanned his surroundings, stopping when his eyes fell upon the pale glow of the Lodestone. Arubis¡¯ words echoed in his mind.
Think of it as an anchor for your spirit.
¡°I... did I just... respawn?¡± he asked, terror lining his words. Dying twice in 24 hours... that had to be some kind of record.
¡°A Warden generally cannot experience true death,¡± Arubis said. His gaze snapped toward her, the robed woman standing placidly in the door of the cell. ¡°Your spirit is... immortal. When slain, your flesh will be reconstituted at the nearest Lodestone.¡±
Riley shuddered, sweating bullets beneath his bird-shaped mask. He felt like he was set to have a heart attack, giving him a hat trick of deaths in the span of a single day.
¡°Oh no...¡± he moaned, briefly closing his eyes.
¡°The only consequence of your death is losing the Essence you accrued. It was, in turn, absorbed into the creature that killed you. But you can reclaim it, so do not worry.¡± She offered him a pleasant smile, ignorant of Riley¡¯s panicked grimace. ¡°Still... it is a surprise that Fort Bane still has any soldiers left after all this time. Though that one seems to merely be a corpse, driven by a trace of Rot.¡±
¡°Being a Warden is awful...¡± he muttered, pulling himself slowly to his feet. He rested his weight against his staff, standing idle until the urge to vomit had subsided.
Arubis gently set a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I know that this is a lot for you to take in and endure. But please... I know you can handle the Path of Strife. Use caution and wisdom, and you shall grow stronger and thrive.¡±
Her smile seemed genuine. And, in that moment, her snake eyes seemed far less intimidating.
¡°Okay. I¡¯ll... try.¡± His legs felt like jelly, and he walked down the same frosty corridor with a newfound anxiety. He halted as he entered through the doorway, his roaming eyes settling upon the hunched figure of the spearman.
He stood a few paces from Riley, his back turned to the doorway. Blood dripped from his spear but there was otherwise no trace of Riley¡¯s body. Riley took a step forward with his staff raised high. The floorboard creaked under his boot, causing the spearman to instantly turn around.
This time Riley struck first, swinging his staff in two quick motions that unleashed a cloud of Blinding Mist, and a second cloud of Choking Haze. Summoning two spells in sequence sent a small lurch of pain through his body. But anything felt inconsequential after experiencing a spear to the gut.
Both clouds washed over the spearman, who howled and thrashed about blindly. Blood bubbled from his eyes and streamed down his cheeks in thin streams, while his coughs echoed through the chamber. Riley quickly moved around him, avoiding the thrusts of his spear. He quickly took advantage of the opening, whacking the spearman across the back with all his might.
The impact smashed the decrepit figure flat on his belly, but didn¡¯t kill him. And, much to Riley¡¯s horror, his breathing already sounded as if it was returning to normal! Was the time limit of the spell so short? Or did a person need to be continually exposed to it for the choking effect the last.
The spearman was already starting to rise, blood and bile dripping from the corners of his mouth. ¡°Keep down!¡± Riley shouted. He steeled his nerve and thrust his staff downward, the sharpened tip gouging a swathe from his throat. The spearman seized up and went still, an abundance of Essence flowing into Riley¡¯s body.
He checked the menu quickly. 610 Essence, in total. The bastard really had taken it all for himself.
He turned to see Arubis gently applauding him. ¡°Well done. Truly well done. Please, do not let death discourage you. Think of it as being a learning experience.¡±
¡°Easy for you to say. You¡¯re not the one who got a spear through the chest.¡±
This situation was still utterly insane to him. But he knew full well by now that it wasn¡¯t just some strange dream. This was, for whatever reason, his life now.
And if med school had taught him anything, it was that he simply had to knuckle down and endure whenever he was faced with something that seemed insurmountable. This was, admittedly, a thousand times more imposing than cramming for an exam.
He took a few shaky breaths, his attention focused firmly on the corpse. Just in case.
¡°So, uh,¡± he said, eventually turning his gaze toward Arubis. ¡°Do you think I have enough Essence to get stronger?¡±
V. Fort Bane
Arubis raised her right hand, holding it toward him. A golden glyph shimmered on her palm, producing enough light that it was near-blinding. Riley winced, his vision gradually adjusting to the glow, while Arubis inspected him.
¡°I believe I could raise two of your stats,¡± she said in a low voice, her brows briefly knitting together. ¡°I should say that, early on, you will need but a modest amount of Essence to raise your abilities. But, with each increase, that number shall gradually rise higher and higher.¡±
¡°Sounds about right,¡± Riley noted, his voice an irritated mutter. ¡°Then... let¡¯s see. I guess I should try to level my... hm... What should I improve first?¡±
¡°If I might make a suggestion?¡± Arubis asked, tilting her head. ¡°Your Vitality is rather low. Even an enemy like this could kill you rather quickly. A higher degree of Vitality will make you tougher and improve your resilience to the insidious forces that wish you harm. It is no substitute for a sturdy suit of armour but, well, our options are limited in that regard for the time being,¡± she explained.
Riley nodded. He spared another glance to the dead spearman, examining his armour for several moments. He ultimately thought better of it. Robbing a corpse was distasteful enough, even if this particular corpse had rammed a spear through his gut recently. But his disgust at the notion aside, both for the moral and hygienic issues it raised, the simple fact was that the armour looked like complete crap.
The chainmail was rusted, falling to pieces in places. The helmet looked as if it would split in half from a stiff breeze. And to say nothing of the fact that the dead spearman was at least a foot taller than Riley, rendering it a totally crap fit.
The robes weren¡¯t much good for protecting him, but they were at least comfortable and fit him like a glove. ¡°Okay. Two points in Vitality.¡±
Arubis nodded, the glowing glyph in her hand blazing brighter for several seconds. Warmth washed through his body, fading almost as quickly as it appeared. He didn¡¯t feel any different, in truth, but a quick check of the menu confirmed that Arubis had done as he asked.
¡°Um... thanks. Let¡¯s... keep going. This fortress probably has some kind of exit somewhere.¡± Assuming the doorway hadn¡¯t collapsed from the passage of time.
They passed through more rooms, their furnishings having rotted away to near-nothingness. Whatever most of these chambers had been, he could only hazard a guess. This time, Riley was cautious and slow in his movements. He peered slowly around each corner, and did everything he could to keep his footsteps as silent as possible.
Even if he could revive from death near-instantly, he wasn¡¯t exactly in a rush to experience another spear in the gut.
He found more emaciated apemen scattered around the various rooms. Some of them barely even stirred at his approach. But those that did come at him, Riley cut them down. Having experienced death at the hands of the spearman, he was feeling much less reserved when it came to violence.
The deeper in they went, the more skeletons Riley found. Some of them were dressed in half-destroyed suits of armour, others were halfway buried between rubble. Fort Bane, at some point, had been rife with people. Now only desiccated madmen roamed the halls.
¡°Um... Thank you for supporting me, earlier,¡± Riley eventually said, not looking back at his companion. ¡°This whole situation is awful. I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m here, but if I have to go through this crap... at least you¡¯re better company than the Arbiter.¡±
¡°That would not be a difficult feat, my Warden,¡± she replied, trying to suppress a titter that rose in her throat.
Riley smiled despite himself. ¡°So, what are Oracles? If you don¡¯t mind me asking, at least. You look mostly human, but your eyes and your strange powers... Well, I get the impression that you¡¯re something pretty unique.¡±
¡°Oracles, such as myself, are spirits given a slightly material presence to aid Wardens in their sacred mission. Our numbers have, over time, steadily dwindled. Yet we still exist. We still serve. The Malformed Chaos does not rest, nor do we.¡±
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Hardly sounds pleasant, Riley thought to himself. ¡°So, you were born into this?¡±
¡°Tis my purpose. And I serve it graciously.¡±
¡°And am I the first Warden you¡¯ve served?¡±
He trailed off as they entered a particularly long chamber, lined from one end to the other with tables and benches. A dining hall, of some sort. Riley peered deeper into the darker half of the room, where something glinted faintly in the shadows.
¡°I have served others,¡± she eventually admitted, a slight tension to her tone.
¡°Well, what happened? If Warden¡¯s are immortal, I figured you¡¯d serve them for life?¡± He pressed deeper into the room, drawn hesitantly closer to the glinting metal.
¡°There... comes a point where a Warden grows beyond our aid.¡±
¡°So strong they can¡¯t have their stats increased further?¡± he asked.
¡°Essentially,¡± Arubis said. He spared a glanced toward her. Her gaze was affixed to the far wall, as if deep in thought.
Once Riley drew close enough to the glint, he could easily see the source of it: A hatchet, halfway buried in one of the floorboards. He gripped it and wrenched it free in a single movement, testing the weight in his right hand.
It wasn¡¯t too heavy, he reasoned, and the blade still seemed to have some sharpness to it. Most importantly, he couldn¡¯t see even a single speck of rust on the blade of the flat. Riley quickly checked it in his inventory.
Woodsman¡¯s Hatchet
A simple axe, found among the remains of Fort Bane. More of a tool than a weapon, it is still adept at cutting flesh if nothing more fitting will do.
¡®When the plague began to spread in earnest though the Vergoll Empire, Fort Bane was cut off from outside aid. Supplies grew lean, men grew desperate, and even the woodsmen were forced to fight to defend their lives.¡¯
Riley narrowed his eyes, dismissing the menu with a gesture. ¡°A plague spread through here? Must be pretty damn bad.¡± He was willing to bet these people hadn¡¯t even discovered germ theory yet, if they were still reliant on medieval weaponry. And if the plague was tied to the Rot, then there was probably some kind of magic powering it.
His mind briefly wandered to the remains of the spearman, and the strange black growths that had been gnawing at his flesh. Was that the plague? Or something else?
Regardless, the axe was a good find. It may not have been an ideal weapon, but he had the stats to wield the thing (apparently), and it was probably a bad idea to whack every enemy with his staff. He didn¡¯t know if the staff could break or not, but it was a risk he didn¡¯t want to take. And an axe to the face was marginally more lethal to some choking fog.
He switched the staff to his left hand, the axe now gripped firmly in his right. ¡°There might still be some stuff here worth taking, then. Guess it¡¯d be a good idea to raid whatever supplies are here, before we leave. If this place is meant to be the tip of the east, and everything we saw eastward looks like frozen mountains... then we¡¯re gonna want to head west.¡±
A knot of uncertainty lingered in his stomach. Riley was still far from pleased with the situation, but he had to make the most of it. Most importantly, he had to do what he could to prolong his own survival.
The phantom pain of a spear plunging through his chest sent a shudder racing through him. Never again. He couldn¡¯t face that again.
¡°Tis very important to have a plan in mind, and it I¡¯m heartened to see you doing so. Do not worry about me, I require no sustenance,¡± Arubis said. She was smiling again, something of a reassuring sign. She was the only friend he had at the moment.
¡°Right then.¡± Riley turned and stalked up the length of the decaying mess hall. ¡°Let¡¯s get back to it.¡± And so they set off again, stalking through the depths of Fort Bane.
Most of the time spent going from room to room involved dispatching more apemen, and the occasional soldier. The axe proved decently adept at chopping down the sturdier enemies. But, whenever he was faced with a larger group, Riley sent out a cloud of Blinding Mist to keep his foes stunned, making it easier to cut them down with less risk to himself.
All in all, he got a tidy profit of Essence for his troubles.
What he found significantly less of, however, was supplies. The people still in the fort had been thorough in raiding the food. And what he came upon was either rotted, or so foul that even a starving man would turn his nose up at it.
Having cleared through several chambers, adding a point to Vitality and one to Might for fear of losing the Essence he had accrued, Riley¡¯s wanderings eventually took him to a vast, snow-blanketed courtyard. He told himself he¡¯d start trying to improve the strength of his magic when he had access to better spells.
At the centre of the courtyard stood a raised stone platform, upon which were several mummified, headless corpses bound to broad iron stakes. The sight of it made Riley freeze in place for several long moments.
¡°Christ,¡± he muttered. He counted seven corpses in total, preserved beneath a layer of frost. His eyes roamed to the front of the platform, coming to a halt on a bronze plaque. Words had been hewn into the metal, in a language Riley couldn¡¯t read.¡°Arubis... what does that say?¡±
The Oracle stopped at his side, folding her hands together inside her sleeves. ¡°Ah. You do not know the local alphabet. Well, worry not. There is an ability that can aid with that.¡± She raised her right hand, placing it on Riley¡¯s shoulder. Warmth flooded through his body, settling in his eyes. Slowly, gradually, the letters on the plaque were rearranged before his eyes, until they resembled plain English.
¡®Upon this spot, beneath the eyes of Emperor Garrett, the seven leaders of the wildmen tribes were put to the sword by Commander Klaus. For his bravery and dedication to the Empire, he was dubbed the Bane of the East. Thus Fort Bane was built, and he was given command of it.¡¯
Another shiver raced through Riley¡¯s body.
¡°Who the fuck is Commander Klaus?¡±
VI. Stag of the East
Navigating Fort Bane was a rather laborious process. As it happened, time and the elements had caused some of the corridors and rooms to collapse, blocking the ways off entirely. No matter how sturdy a building was, it needed some degree of maintenance. Particularly when the environment was as harsh as the eastern mountains.
And, ultimately, Riley had to take a few strange routes in order to navigate the upper levels. Supplies, as ever, were rare to come upon. He did, however, find a few pouches filled with strange electrum coins. He made a point to stash them in his Inventory, just in case.
He didn¡¯t know what passed for legal tender in these parts, but those coins certainly looked the part. And it would be best to have at least a few of them on hand, if he came upon anything worth buying. He considered himself a cautious man, generally speaking, and wanted to cover his bases now more than ever.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, he found little in the realm of more enemies to fight. As such he grabbed little extra Essence. Certainly not enough to boost another of his stats.
He found one more Lodestone just as the sun began to set on the horizon, sending rays of red and orange light through the windows. He thought little of it, until he moved around the corner from the Lodestone and found a doorway that led into a massive entrance hall.
From where Riley stood, he could see the doorway on the opposite side of the room lit with the fast-fading sunlight. Beyond that there was a vast and winding road, stretching off to parts unknown. His road to freedom.
Riley took a single step into the room, only to freeze up again. His eyes were drawn away from the vast, frost-encrusted doorway, to a figure he hadn¡¯t noticed in his initial excitement. A man hunched in the shadows, his back to Riley.
Even crouched as he was, he was a towering figure rendered larger by his rusted plate armour and the black fur mantle spread across his broad shoulders. He was huge, big enough that he could have lifted a spearman in either hand as if they were made of cloth.
Riley inched closer, passing through the doorway entirely. He got a better look at the armoured man, paying particular attention to the grilled leg of meat clutched in his hands. A horse leg, or that of a deer, judging by the broad hoof it was sporting. The figure was focused on it entirely, growling and snarling as he bit great, bloody chunks right off the bone.
Another soldier, that much was obvious at a glance. But he looked far more formidable than the grunts Riley had seen thus far. And he seemed to still have his wits about him, compared to the half-insane wretches that stalked the halls of Fort Bane.
And he decided, in that moment, that no amount of Essence was worth picking a fight with the hulking figure. He swallowed hard, his back to the wall as he tried to move to the door as slowly and as quietly as he could. The man was eating so loudly that Riley doubted he could hear much of anything.
Or so he thought.
¡°Another deserter?¡± the towering figure asked, his voice a harsh rasp. He turned his head, the antlers on the sides of his helmet casting a twisted shadow on the wall, and spat out a chunk of bone. ¡°Or did you crawl out of the gaol?¡±
The stranger rose to his feet, and Riley froze in place as he realised this man loomed more than two heads taller than him. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter,¡± he eventually said. He turned to face Riley, his breastplate marred by a series of scratches and scars. His face was largely concealed by a shaggy black and white beard. But Riley could just barely see black pustules framing his left eye.
¡°I¡¯m not...¡± Riley swallowed hard. This man could talk, then surely he was more rational than the people Riley had dealt with thus far? At least, he had to hope he could talk his way out of this. ¡°I¡¯m not a soldier here. Or a prisoner. I just want to leave.¡±
Baleful blue eyes glared at him. The towering man reached down, pulling a mighty axe into his hands. It was a beast of a thing that dwarfed Riley¡¯s hatchet. One half of the blades had been snapped off, but the remaining edge seemed more than lethal enough to make up the difference.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
¡°I am Commander Klaus, the lord of Fort Bane. I decide who leaves, and who stays. And until we receive orders from the capital...¡± He turned to fully face Riley. In that moment he could see the hacked up remains of several soldiers behind the horned figure. ¡°Nobody leaves.¡±
Commander Klaus, Stag of the East.
The horned figure raced toward Riley in a sudden burst of speed, the ground shaking under the weight of his armoured boots. Riley flung himself to the side, only barely avoiding a slash that would have bisected him at the waist. ¡°Jesus!¡± he shouted, scrambling to his feet and rushing away from another swing. The air screamed around the blade of Klaus¡¯ malformed axe.
He may have been huge, and decked from head to toe in tarnished steel, but Klaus was shockingly fast. Getting a chance to even hit him felt like a distant prospect.
Riley¡¯s chest rose and fell with panicked breaths as he swept his staff toward the armoured man, launching a cloud of Blinding Mist at Klaus. He snarled and recoiled, a gauntleted hand pressing to his eyes. He stumbled and swung wildly, the force of his swings dispersing the cloud.
The temptation to make a break for the door was strong, but Riley knew it would be foolish to try. Can¡¯t outrun this guy. I try to run, he¡¯ll chase me down. I... oh shit I¡¯m actually gonna have to fight him!
How unfortunate, then, that Klaus seemed a hundred times more dangerous than anything Riley had faced thus far.
Nevertheless he steeled his nerves and charged Klaus¡¯ exposed back. His hatchet repeatedly struck against the damaged portions of Klaus¡¯ breastplate, kicking up a few sparks and sprays of blood. But Klaus barely even stumbled, as if he didn¡¯t feel the impacts and all.
Riley threw himself to the ground as Klaus swung around at him, the air rushing around his axe. ¡°Shit, shit!¡± he huffed, jumping to avoid a crushing downward swing. The impact still kicked up a powerful shock wave, flinging Riley a considerable distance across the entrance hall.
Klaus huffed and spat on the floor. The effects of the mist had already warn off, the flesh around his eyes raw and bleeding. ¡°One of Aqar¡¯Ghul¡¯s dogs. A servant of the Bitch Queen herself! Killing you will be doing another service for the empire!¡±
¡°Wait, wait, I don¡¯t serve any-¡±
Klaus stomped the ground, fracturing a chunk of the stone floor. The power behind his foot unleashed another shock wave, flinging Riley off his feet. He landed harshly on his stomach, all the air being shunted from his lungs.
Well, he supposed he was dressed like some kind of evil priest.
Riley tried to scramble to his feet, just in time to see a great axe blade rushing toward his neck.
DEATH.
Riley opened his eyes and found himself seated by the Lodestone in the courtyard. Chilly wind buffeted him from all sides, while great lack birds cawed and flew high above him. He let out an annoyed sigh, his shoulders sagging.
¡°Great,¡± he muttered. That guy was built like a tank, and had the mental capacity of one too. Trying to fight him seemed impossible, and suicidal to boot.
But he had scouted every other part of Fort Bane he could get to, and the path through Klaus was the only way out. If he wanted to get free of this damn place, that overgrown maniac had to die.
Riley struggled to his feet, resting his weight against his staff.
¡°Well... that could have gone better. But it was a valiant first attempt!¡±
Arubis, as ever, stood a few meters from him. Being some kind of spirit made it easier to come and go as she pleased. She didn¡¯t need to die to return to the Lodestone.
¡°I¡¯m not exactly in a rush to fight him again. But it seems like that¡¯s my only option.¡± What could he have possibly done in life to deserve this as an afterlife?
A scurrying sound hit his ear. Riley turned to the source, tensing until he realised it was just a rat poking his head from a nearby bush. Their eyes met for several long seconds. The rat didn¡¯t move.
Huffing, Riley turned his attention back to Arubis. ¡°Any ideas?¡± he asked.
¡°I am no fighter, unfortunately, my aid is limited. But it is clear that the Rot runs deep through Klaus¡¯ veins. He was once a proud and noble warrior, yet now his flesh is a conduit for a foul power. In some respects, this makes him more dangerous than ever. But... in other regards, he is weaker.¡±
Riley narrowed his eyes behind the lenses of his mask. ¡°How do you figure?¡±
¡°The Rot is... incompatible with mortal flesh. It is a vile cancer, warping the living. The host is rendered far stronger than normal, yet this strength comes at cost. The blighted matter gnawing at their flesh, rotting them from the inside out. The more he is consumed by it...¡±
¡°The weaker he¡¯ll get. Huh. So even if I die fighting him, he doesn¡¯t heal or anything?" Although he had to question the cancer comparison. Any cancer patient Riley had known couldn''t throw hands in the way Klaus could.
¡°Only if he has the time and means to do so.¡± She grimaced. ¡°But few thing withstand the Rot for long.¡±
Riley considered this, resting a hand under his chin. He supposed he had an advantage of some kind against Klaus. So long as he didn¡¯t give up, so long as he just kept flinging himself at that brick shithouse, he¡¯d eventually come out on top.
In theory, anyway.
He sighed, hefting his hatchet in his right hand, and slowly made for the entrance hall again. ¡°Okay. Round two.¡±
VII. Emissary of Vermin
Klaus hissed as a cloud of Choking Haze washed over him, his hulking frame stumbling to one knee. He clawed his throat, each hacking cough summoning up a wave of bloodied spittle. Riley seized the opening and swung his axe with whatever strength he had, the edge biting into Klaus¡¯s gorget. Just enough to break through the damaged steel and wound the flesh beneath, blood oozing from the freshly cut gap.
Riley jumped away to avoid the inevitable counter, the floor rumbling violently under his feet from the force of his movements. ¡°Vile strumpet serving cur!¡± Klaus snarled, his breathing slowly returning to normal. His entire chin was smeared with blood.
¡°I keep telling you, I don¡¯t serve anyone!¡± Riley shouted. He raised his staff, preparing to summon forth more Choking Haze. Already a faint pain was building in his muscles.
He had quickly found that the more spells he cast, particularly in quick succession, the more winded he became. Supposedly, Capacity was the stat that dictated his reserves of magical power. A higher Capacity would let him cast more and more spells. But, for now at least, he could probably cast up to ten spells in a single fight before the fatigue became too strong.
Klaus rushed him before he could summon another cloud, sweeping his head toward the wizard in an attempt to gore him on his antlers. The blow grazed Riley¡¯s shoulder as he tried to dodge, sending him skidding across the damaged floor.
Riley groaned and rolled onto his feet. His right sleeve was torn, the flesh beneath bloodied and already starting to bruise. It was a miracle the bones in his arm hadn¡¯t been fractured.
Already the giant was rushing him again, the floor shuddering with greater intensity as he drew nearer. His axe was raised high, set to crush Riley into a fine smear.
He narrowly dodged the strike, the edge of Klaus¡¯ axe digging deep into the floor. Riley countered quickly, throwing caution to the wind and landing two swift strikes to Klaus¡¯ ribs. He deliberately aimed for a dented part of his breastplate, the metal splitting to reveal blackened flesh. The second strike carved into one of Klaus¡¯ tumours, splitting it open and releasing a spray of bilious black blood.
The lord of Fort Bane threw his head back, a pained howl rising in his throat. It shook the very chamber around them, sounding more like the cry of a beast than any sound a human could make.
Undaunted, Riley swung a third time, burying half of his hatchet into the damaged skin. Another howl, louder this time, echoed through fort. He thought, perhaps, he¡¯d found a weak point. And that if he kept hitting it, Klaus would have no chance to get back to his feet.
Klaus swung his ironclad fist back, knuckles aimed squarely at Riley¡¯s temple.
DEATH.
Riley blinked repeatedly, swiftly scanning his surroundings. The courtyard, again. This time it was the dead of night. A moon hung high above them, luminous ivory. Great scars dotted the lunar surface, a chunk of it having broken off. A trail of shattered fragments followed behind it.
¡°What even happened that time?!¡± Riley shouted.
¡°You were decapitated by a single punch,¡± Arubis simply told him.
He sighed. ¡°You know what? At least the instantaneous deaths hurt a whole lot less.¡± He reached up with his left hand, groping his chest. The mental image of being impaled by a spear loomed large in his mind.
¡°But I actually hurt him that time. Those growths, perhaps unsurprisingly, seem very sensitive to harm. Striking them can buy me some breathing room. But I gotta make sure not to fixate on them or get greedy. Otherwise I run the risk of getting mulched by a wild hit.¡±
Riley paced around as he spoke, doing a few quick laps around the glowing Lodestone.
He only he stopped when he realised he was being watched. Riley glanced to the bushes off to the side of the courtyard, where a coterie of rats had gathered to watch him. Five in total.
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¡°I have faith in you, Warden. Alas, faith is all I can offer you at present. You have no more essence to forge strength with, and it is doubtful more could be scrounged from the fort.¡±
¡°Seems that way. We did check every room we could get to,¡± Riley replied, reluctantly pulling his eyes from the rats. It was doubtful there was any worthwhile Essence in such small creatures anyway.
¡°Round three.¡±
Klaus was already waiting for him by the time he entered the entrance hall. He stood to attention, clutching the shaft of his axe in both hands.
¡°Again you haunt me, vile spectre,¡± Klaus snarled, his eyes burning with hatred. ¡°Yet I shan¡¯t waiver. I shall kill you as many times as I must. All in the service of his lordship.¡±
¡°Your emperor, right?¡± Riley asked, taking a few hesitant steps into the room. ¡°L-look around you! Everyone here is dead! Your fort is a ruin! You¡¯ve been abandoned, and your emperor doesn¡¯t give a shit! You¡¯re wasting your life, rotting out here!¡±
¡°More lies! Filth born from the mouth of your gutter goddess!¡±
Klaus swept toward him in a blur of speed. Riley jumped away from another slash, arcing around him. A cloud of blinding mist flew from his staff, the purple mist gnawing at Klaus¡¯ eyes. He hissed in pain, more blood staining his face.
But the giant man adapted quickly, gripping his axe with both hands and swinging his axe in a full 360 degree arc. Riley threw himself flat on his stomach, grimacing as the axe sliced a swathe through the wall as if it were made of butter.
He grit his teeth, waiting until the axe passed over him, and swung a blow of his own at the back of Klaus¡¯ knee. Boiled leather and flesh gave way under the edge of Riley¡¯s hatchet, blood spurting across the flat of his blade.
Klaus snarled and kicked back like a startled horse. This time Riley raised his arms to block, the blow clipping him and sending him rolling across the floor. A powerful ache rolled through his arms, his entire skeleton shuddering under the harsh blow.
Even a stray blow like that damn near killed him. Riley shuddered where he lay, his knuckles aching from how tightly he was gripping his hatchet and staff.
¡°I have had... enough of you!¡± Klaus roared. He spun around to face Riley, a cyclone of frosty wind erupting around him. Riley¡¯s eyes widened, focused on the edge of his axe it sprouted a stream of ice crystals. ¡°Wretched plaguebearer!¡±
He swung his axe from where he stood, unleashing a frosty gale toward Riley. The plague wizard scrambled to his feet and ran, avoiding the incoming wave as it uprooted a path in the floor. Spikes of ice exploded in the wake of the gale, glittering in the flickering light of the braziers.
Already Klaus was charging at him, a miasma of frost hissing from his mouth. Riley rolled away from more slashes, each swing of the beastly blade kicking up an explosion of ice crystals. Riley countered where he could, swooping in and landing strikes on any exposed flesh he could see. He even threw out more miasmas to blind and choke Klaus, yet he was powering through Riley¡¯s magic with ferocious tenacity.
He swept his antlers at Riley again, but Riley found it easier to dodge while his foe was thrashing about in a rage. He sidestepped the horns and narrowed his eyes, adrenaline thrumming through his veins. He bit back any hesitation or fear he may have felt.
After all death was only a fleeting thing for him, right?
Riley¡¯s hatchet hissed through the air, catching Klaus in the jaw while his head was lowered. And, to his shock, his blade cleaved a chunk of Klaus¡¯ lower jaw clean off! Blood gushed up Riley¡¯s sleeve, followed by a spray of frost that chilled him to the bone.
I-I did it! After a blow like that, there¡¯s no way he ca-
Klaus¡¯ axe swept upward, slicing Riley¡¯s neck in twain.
DEATH.
¡°Uuuugh...¡± Riley came to, lying on his back in the courtyard. He reached up with trembling hands, clutching his neck just to make sure it was still in tact.
¡°I got carried away again.¡±
He sat upright to see Arubis staring down at him. She offered him a sympathetic smile. ¡°But you are doing very well. I doubt he can endure much more.¡±
¡°I¡¯d be terrified if he could...¡±
Riley moved to stand, his gaze shifting to the bushes again. The number of rats had grown significantly. Now he had an audience of twenty staring at him, as if expecting something.
A shiver raced down Riley¡¯s back.
¡°Okay, I have to ask... what the hell is all this about?¡±
¡°You are a plague wizard, are you not? Your order shares kinship with all the verin of the world,¡± Arubis calmly explained.
Why did I get linked to a goddess of gross animals?
¡°Huh... now that you mention it, I did see a passive discussing something like that. Never gave it much thought but...¡± He inspected the small crowd of rats. He knew full well how dangerous a pack of rats could be. Vicious, relentless, and hungry.
Maybe he could get some use out of them?
His eyes fell on a rat who stood at the head of the pack. He was larger than the others, and further distinguished by a thin scar on his right side and a mohawk of ivory fur atop his head. He was cute, in an ugly sort of way, Riley thought.
¡°Er... hello?¡± he called out.
The emissary of Mother Aqar¡¯Ghul speaks to us!
The response echoed in the back of his mind, making Riley wince in discomfort. ¡°Er... y-yeah, I did. I was just... wondering of you would be interested in helping me out?¡±
The rats turned and seemed to communicate with each other, whiskers and ears twitching about. But they showed particular deference to the rat with the mohawk.
He skittered forward, looking Riley in the eye as if they were equals.
For a noble emissary of Mother Aqar¡¯Ghul... we shall gladly use our claws and teeth to rend the flesh of any foe.
Riley smiled nervously under his mask. ¡°G-good to know. Then... follow me. Round four, here we go!¡±
VIII. The Fall of the Stag
The sound of Klaus¡¯ gargled breathing and frantic cries filled the air of Fort Bane, echoing through every corridor and chamber. Riley had hesitated more than once as he made his approach, his pack of rats trailing a few paces behind him.
¡°He should have bled out by now. All those wounds... and losing his entire jaw. No way he should still be alive. Certainly not thrashing about like this.¡±
All his years in med school seemed pointless now. Everything he knew about the human body felt totally outdated, faced with beings that existed beyond the norms of conventional biology and evolution. He supposed he couldn¡¯t take anything for granted now.
He halted just outside the doorway, his hands trembling as he gripped his staff and hatchet.
¡°I¡¯m... I¡¯m going to draw his attention. And while he¡¯s attacking me, you rush at him from behind. Bite any piece of skin you can reach.¡±
As you say, noble Emissary, the mohawk-rat exclaimed, beaming with pride as best a rodent could.
Riley fought the urge to sigh. This situation just got weirder by the second.
He pressed on, entering the hall with his weapons raised high. His gaze settled on Klaus, who stood hunched on the opposite end of the room. Snowy fog rolled off of him in glistening waves, blood dripping from the ruin that had once been his jaw.
Now, however, his face and neck were covered in a sea of oily black growths. The sight of them sent an uncomfortable shudder racing through Riley¡¯s body.
There was no talking this time. No taunts or demands. They simply rushed each other.
Riley ducked under a swing, a wave of boreal wind passing him by. His hatchet cleaved a gaping wound on Klaus¡¯ side, sending a spray of blood and flesh across the damaged floor. His next swing struck one of Klaus¡¯ damaged bracers, carving into the metal and releasing another spray of blood.
He jumped back, avoiding being impaled on an erupting spike of ice. His movements in their first fight had been brutal, yes, but he had still carried himself with a degree of dignity and grace. Now, however, he was stomping and thrashing about like an enraged bull. His eyes, whenever Riley could glimpse them, had lost any trace of humanity: Just jet black pits of inhuman cruelty.
They raced up and down the length of the hall, hazes of magical plague doing little to slow Klaus down. But, fortunately, his swings and strikes seemed to go wide of the mark every time. Riley kept dodging, his lungs burning from his own exertion.
He landed more cuts throughout, hacking deep into any exposed wounds, yet Klaus was only barely slowing down. It was almost as if the man barely felt pain at all, his mind having devolved to the point where it couldn¡¯t feel it anymore.
A sweeping cut missed Riley, but the ensuing explosion of ice clipped him and knocked him halfway across the room. He bounced and rolled across the room, a pained cry echoing through the war torn hall. He forced himself to one knee, huffing for breath while Klaus stomped his way.
Then the rats made their move.
Riley hadn¡¯t seen them during the chaos, too focused on the movements of Klaus¡¯ axe and horns to pay attention to anything else. But, over the course of the battle, several of them had scurried toward Klaus and clambered into his furry cloak. Riley caught a glimpse of several of them as they raced out of their furry hiding space, making for Klaus¡¯ neck and arms.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
They attacked in unison, biting and gnawing at every piece of flesh they could reach, pulling at exposed muscle tissue like string cheese. Klaus howled in beastly rage, blood and bile spraying from the mauled ruin that had once been his jaw. He thrashed and stumbled about, clawing at each rat he could reach. Any unfortunate enough to be caught in his ironclad fingers were promptly crushed into a fine paste.
Riley pushed himself to his feet and rushed toward Klaus while he was distracted, ignoring the pain that burned in his limbs. He had to end this, here and now!
His hatchet slammed into the back of Klaus¡¯ injured knee, the plague wizard striking with every bit of strength he could muster. Klaus howled, his knee buckling entirely, and the ground shook violently as he landed.
Burning eyes locked onto Riley, the armoured man releasing the bundle of crushed rat meat in his hand. His other hand gripped his axe tighter, the frosted blade glimmering as he tried to lift it. Riley narrowed his eyes, raising his hatchet a fraction of a second faster.
Steel whistled through the air, catching Klaus¡¯ damaged neck and cleaving clean through it. The giant swayed, his head halfway cleaved from his neck. He hit the ground with another mighty thud and went still, the final few beats of his heart spraying blackened blood from his neck wound.
Riley stood over the corpse for several moments, his body heaving with ragged breaths. He was half expecting Klaus to spring back to life, angrier than ever. Yet that never happened. He was as dead as a doornail.
¡°Holy shit,¡± Riley mumbled. The last of the adrenaline left his system, his whole body shaking like a leaf. Then, suddenly, great strands of luminous black smoke hissed from Klaus¡¯ body. It swept over him in an instant, like a tide, the shock of it nearly knocking Riley on his ass.
Four thousand Essence, plus an extra two hundred from his prior kills. And something else, sending a pulsating notification radiating from Riley¡¯s menu icon. He reached up with a shaky hand to open his menu, and then navigated something new that had appeared in his inventory.
Aspect of the Stag
The lingering remnants of Commander Klaus, Stag of the East, Able to imbue power into a Warden, once activated by an Oracle. Spend stamina to release cutting gales of boreal wind.
¡®Klaus Rieger was once a bastard son of an imperial aristocrat. Ambition burned in his breast with the heat of a star, driving him to countless victories on the battlefield. His reward was Fort Bane. The bitterness of this posting ate away at him over untold years, the fire in his belly contorting into hateful ice that the Rot was able to prey upon.
Yet, despite it all, he never lost his loyalty.¡¯
Riley read the description again, knitting his brows together. Despite everything, he felt a tiny measure of sympathy for the man. He had killed a man, after all. Even if it was out of self preservation, he had still taken the life of a thinking, breathing person who had once had hopes and ambitions. It went against everything he had devoted his life to when he was trying to become a doctor. Still, he ultimately felt a great sense of relief from his victory.
But, most interestingly, he could apparently get a new power from that victory, if that ¡®Aspect¡¯ was anything to go by. He¡¯d have to look into that, when his heart stopped threatening to beat out of his chest.
¡°Well done, Warden,¡± Arubis said. She, as ever, seemed to appear from thin air at her leisure. She strode closer to him with silent steps, clapping her hands together. ¡°I knew you had it in you. The Arbiter may be strange, yet he always chooses Wardens who are strong at their core.¡±
¡°Th-thanks,¡± Riley murmured. He pushed himself to his feet, his legs feeling like jelly. He made his way for the door, past the shattered stones and ridges of ice that had been kicked up over the course of several battles. A cold night wind wafted over him as he stepped beyond the doorway.
A path stretched ahead of him, toward the wall that ringed the outside of Fort Bane. The gate house was a ruin, left wide open. There was nothing left between him and the wider world now.
A gallows stood off to the side of the path, the noose supporting a body that had largely rotted into a skeleton. Black rags hung limp around the body. The robes, Riley quickly realised, of a plague wizard.
Riley approached the hanging body, his eyes drawn to something hitched to his belt. Something that had avoid the ravages of time shockingly well. Once he got close enough he could see that it was a scroll, contained in a sculpted azure shell. He took it from the skeleton¡¯s belt, inspecting it in his inventory. Another spell.
Flesh-Rend
Plague wizardry. Unleashes a plague that simmers through the air like a vibrating wave, dissolving the flesh of those it comes into contact with. Unarmoured targets take higher damage.
¡®The third lesson imparted to the wizards of Aqar¡¯Ghul. Those who seek to harm us are blasphemous sin made flesh. Thus we shall deprive them of their flesh.¡¯
Riley hummed as he closed his inventory again. He tilted his head upward, watching the shattered moon as it dipped toward the distant horizon.
¡°That would have been really helpful about an hour ago.¡±
IX. Making Camp
T¡¯was a magnificent battle, Emissary. Well fought. Alas, it was a victory born at great cost. My kinsmen were all slain by the giant. I only narrowly escaped his crushing hands.
Riley glanced all around himself as the voice echoed in the back of his mind. His attention eventually settled on the mohawk-rat, scurrying his way across the snowy ground. ¡°Ah, yeah. Apologies about that. I didn¡¯t mean to get all your people killed.¡±
They understood the risks. And a life lived without risk is no life at all. I was a princeling among these rats. And now, it seems, I am a prince with no kingdom.
Riley nodded stiffly. ¡°Well, uh... you could come with me, if you¡¯d like?¡± he eventually offered. Perhaps the little guy could come in handy? And, in truth, it wasn¡¯t like Riley was in a situation where he could discard a friendly face.
You would welcome me into your company? Truly? The rat tilted his head to one side, his whiskers rapidly twitching. Then I shall be a stalwart ally unto thee. Call me Mesquard.
¡°Riley,¡± he replied, nodding toward the rat. He crouched and held a hand to the rat, who scurried up his arm and perched himself comfortably on Riley¡¯s shoulder. Ordinarily he wouldn¡¯t dare let a rat anywhere near him, for hygienic reasons if nothing else. But as a plague wizard, it wasn¡¯t like he needed to worry about such things anymore.
¡°Right then. Let¡¯s be on our way.¡±
The road ahead was dark and silent, the only sounds coming from the snow crunching under Riley¡¯s boots. Fortunately the lenses of his mask still offered him some illumination, though the winding road that led up to Fort Bane hadn¡¯t fallen entirely to disrepair.
It was a somewhat steep and angular path to follow, and he spied more than a few corpses frozen in the snow. Like statues, glittered with frost. An unpleasant sight, but Riley was already no stranger to seeing dead bodies at this point.
Still, it boded poorly, and a knot of discomfort settled in his gut.
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They pressed on for a while, until Riley¡¯s exhaustion became too much to endure. The more time that passed from his duel with Klaus, the more pronounced the ache in his muscles became. He no longer had adrenaline to fuel his body, after all. Mesquard, armed with an uncanny knowledge of their surroundings, led the way to a gnarled tree with a hollowed-out trunk.
Some holdover of the past, he said, where Klaus¡¯ scouts would lie in wait and watch for any trespassers, or fleeing apemen. It wasn¡¯t exactly a comfortable sleeping spot, but it was better than lying down in the snow. And, as ever, Riley''s robes provided decent protection from the chilly wind.
¡°I guess... this isn¡¯t so bad,¡± Riley murmured, pressing his back against a groove in the blackened wood. Mesquard curled up on his shoulder and was soon fast asleep, his ears flat against the sides of his head. ¡°Frankly, anything is an improvement from that damn fort.¡± But damn if he didn''t miss the comfort of his bed.
¡°Indeed,¡± Arubis said. And, to Riley¡¯s shock, she climbed into the hollow to join him. There was just enough room to fit the two of them, scarcely an inch keeping their knees from touching. ¡°I have seen much of this land, across the length and breadth of Kerberos. But Fort Bane was... particularly unpleasant.¡±
Riley swallowed hard, thankful of the mask concealing his face. He felt awkward, foolish, but he couldn''t blame her for joining him. Against the sheer cold, this was a simple method to ensure their mutual survival. ¡°Kerberos, huh?¡± he murmured, largely to distract himself. He recalled the word, vaguely, but everything he had heard from the Arbiter was chaotic and hazy to him.
¡°The name of this world. One of many, besieged by insidious forces¡± Arubis said, gesturing lightly as she spoke. ¡°How blessed we are, that Wardens like you are still born to protect it.¡±
¡°Yeah.¡± Riley turned his head from her and closed his eyes, too tired to try and refute her words. ¡°I¡¯m feelin¡¯ lucky right now,¡± he sarcastically murmured. ¡°Say, Arubis, I got this... weird thing from killing Klaus. An ¡®Aspect¡¯?¡±
¡°Oh my!¡± Arubis said, suddenly reinvigorated. ¡°Well, that is perhaps to be expected. Klaus seemed rather strong, it¡¯s likely his soul was potent enough to leave a trace behind. Well, an Aspect is... an echo of a powerful being. A Warden can equip such things as a sort of additional weapon, mimicking the abilities of their quarry. Only...¡± She trailed off, briefly furrowing her brow.
¡°Only... what?¡± he asked, inclining his masked head toward her.
¡°Well, Aspects are rather powerful. Perhaps too powerful for you to handle at present. When your Capacity and Fortitude are higher, perhaps then your flesh can handle the strain of the power.¡±
¡°Mm. I guess that makes sense.¡± He tried to imagine the power of the Aspect, his mind flashing with vivid images of Klaus in motion. The mighty stomps of his feet, the slashes of his axe, and the frozen cyclones he generated when his desperation grew too intense.
It certainly would be a potent power to call upon. And, now that he thought about it, he had enough Essence to get a few extra stat boosts. Something to deal with later, he told himself. He was far too tired for any rational decision making.
He settled into the hollow as best he could, swiftly drifting into a dreamless slumber once his exhaustion overcame him.
He died five times in the span of a single day, and had fought a giant beast of a man with the kind of ferocity that would have made his caveman ancestors positively ecstatic.
As far as introductions to a new world went, he was sure some people must have had it worse.
X. Gone Hunting
Arubis lowered her hand, the golden glow steadily fading as the glyph in her palm vanished. ¡°And that should suffice. You certainly gained a considerable bonus from killing Klaus.¡±
Riley nodded, briefly looking toward the early morning sun. He had decided to upgrade his stats as soon as he was awake, though he didn¡¯t feel much different. He brought his menu up and quickly checked through his stats again.
Vitality 12
Capacity 14
Fortitude 8
Nimbleness 14
Might 8
Wisdom 19
Awareness 10
It was a slight improvement, generally speaking. In truth he was largely paralysed with indecision when it came to picking what to improve, feeling that he needed a little bit of everything. But, for now, his health was now stronger than it had been at first, and his spells would hit a little harder than before. A welcome thing, since Flesh-Rend sounded much more conventionally damaging than his other two spells.
Riley closed his menu just as his stomach began to rumble, a pained grimace crossing his face. He hadn¡¯t spared a single thought toward food last night, all his thoughts focused on getting past Klaus. Now, however, he couldn¡¯t think of anything beyond how empty his stomach was.
¡°Hey, uh, Mesquard? What¡¯s the hunting like in these parts?¡±
The elders of my clan passed down many tales of the golden era, before corruption took root in the heart of the humans here. They spoke of banquets of reindeer, and piles of auroch meat, and great cuts of snowbeast. Fine meals that my ancient kinsmen dined upon in daring raids.
Riley was willing to bet that he and the rat had very different notions when it came to things being ancient. Many generations of rats could come and go in the span of a single human generation. Still, that meant there had to be some game out here to hunt.
Too bad Riley had never hunted a day in his life before now.
But if the animals were as violent as the people in these parts, he probably wouldn¡¯t need to try hard to find some. If anything they¡¯d seek him out. ¡°Keep your nose to the air, let me know if you smell anything... meaty in the area.¡± He nodded to Arubis and set off, leaving the misshapen tree behind.
The road from Fort Bane led progressively downward, the air steadily growing thicker and more breathable. The cold and snow, however, seemed to be perpetual. Occasionally large black birds would take to the skies, racing from the branches of distant trees. Always too far for Riley to see them in any great detail.
But, eventually, he turned at a bend in the road and was able to get a clearer look at the lands below. There, a considerable distance away, he could see a walled town. It was mostly blanketed in snow, but the presence of flames burning in great braziers on the wall gave him some hope there were people there.
He further hoped they were more welcoming than the people of Fort Bane.
His destination set, Riley continued downhill.
By the time the sun passed high noon, Mesquard suddenly tensed up atop Riley¡¯s shoulder. He scanned about their surroundings, rapidly sniffing the air.
I believe an Auroch is near, he eventually said.
¡°Oh. Good.¡± Riley wasn¡¯t sure what that was, but it sounded edible at least.
He followed Mesquard¡¯s directions over the snow, beyond the man-made tracks of the road. Eventually he moved into a crouch, moving as silently as he could with his weapons gripped firmly in both hands.
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Soon enough, after passing by an assortment of trees and dead bushes, he got his first look at his quarry.
An auroch, as it turned out, was a hulking beast of a cow with horns longer than a man¡¯s arm, covered from end to end in a mop of shaggy brown fur. Riley took cover behind a willowy ash tree as he stared at the creature from afar. Horns aside, it didn¡¯t look too intimidating.
But even from his hiding spot he could see the creature¡¯s eyes, smouldering like coals. Foam and froth dripped from the creature¡¯s mouth, each snort of his nostrils unleashing twin streams of steam. Something about it just seemed... wrong. Rabid.
A fragment of light glinted in the snow, just a few meters from where the auroch stood. Riley narrowed his eyes for a better look, until he realised he was looking at the outline of a blackened corpse, clutching something in his hand that shone whenever the sun struck off it.
¡°Is that...¡± Arubis leaned over his shoulder, nearly knocking Riley over in the process. She hummed softly, seeming to be deep in thought. ¡°If that is what I think it is, you may wish to retrieve it. But, even if it¡¯s not, an auroch will give you plenty of meat. It is a worthwhile endeavour.¡±
¡°Ah, right,¡± Riley murmured. Easy to say when she wasn¡¯t the one who had to do the killng. He cleared his throat and started sneaking downhill. ¡°Mesquard, you may wanna get comfy in my pocket. Things could get hectic.¡±
Of course, noble emissary. I shall wish you well in the coming battle.
He gripped his hatchet tighter, creeping closer and closer to the auroch. Eventually, when he was little over a dozen meters away, the ox-headed beast snapped his head over to glare at Riley. He expected the creature to be skittish, as wild animals tended to be. Instead, the auroch was staring him down.
It snorted steam from both nostrils and promptly rushed toward him, kicking up great swathes of snow with his stampeding hooves. Riley braced himself, dread soaring through his body.
He dodged the colossal horns as they rushed his way and countered with a swift swing, the edge of his hatchet cleaving deep into the auroch¡¯s skull. Yet the beast withstood the blow, jerking his weight toward Riley. A hard blow knocked Riley off his feet and sent him tumbling over the soft snow. An ache radiated down his right side, but at least nothing seemed to be broken.
¡°Alright,¡± Riley hissed, forcing himself upright. The world wobbled in his vision. ¡°Gotta hit him harder.¡±
He fought against the reflexive urge to cast a spell on the beast. He may have been immune to his own plagues, but he doubted they would do the taste of the meat any favours.
Riley dodged more jabs from the beast¡¯s horns, the sharp tips passing so close that the wind rustled the hem of his robe. He braced, waited for just the right moment, and slammed the edge of his hatchet right between the auroch¡¯s eyes. The blow cleaved flesh and fractured bone, his eyes bulging from the sockets as a shock wave rocked his skeleton.
The auroch hit the ground with a thud, nearly bowling Riley over. He shook from end to end, his breathing heavy in the confines of his beaked mask. ¡°Okay... now I... gotta... clean the carcass, I guess?¡± That sounded like the right thing to do, he felt.
He reached for the corpse, only to lurch in shock as great chunks of the auroch¡¯s corpse vanished. A message popped up in the corner of Riley¡¯s vision, lasting for only a few seconds before it faded away.
Auroch Steak x6 added to Inventory.
Auroch Steak
A slab of meat lifted from an auroch. Rich in protein, but as tough as boot leather.
Aurochs are common game in the coldest reaches in Vergoll. Though they are mighty beasts, the volume of meat and fur that can be pulled from them renders the risk far worth the reward. But many foolhardy hunters have wound up as the prey against them.
¡°Huh. Convenient,¡± he mumbled. At least some things about this damn world were kind to him. ¡°Gotta make a fire to cook it. Good thing I was in scouts as a kid.¡± Making a fire was, in theory, easy enough. Provided he could find some dry wood among all this snow.
¡°Do not forget about the other body, Warden,¡± Arubis helpfully said.
¡°The wh-? Oh!¡± Riley glanced across the snow, toward the blackened remains halfway buried in white. He made his way over, grimacing from the ache in his side with every step, and halted just above the decaying corpse. His fingers, gnarled and blackened, were keeping a vicelike grip on something that glimmered with a faint radiance. Riley slowly opened the clasping fingers, grimacing with how they snapped off at the joints. Two of them fell into the snow, pointing accusingly at him.
Grave robbing was one of those things Riley never imagined himself doing. But it, along with dying, fighting monsters, casting spells, getting stabbed, and communicating with rats, was just another facet of his life now.
Eventually he managed to pry the glassy shard loose and pulled it close to inspect it. It was like a spearhead of cloudy quartz, radiating a faint silver glow.
¡°I was right,¡± Arubis murmured. ¡°This traveller held a rather valuable keepsake close to hand. Alas, it could not save him from the cold.¡±
Riley quickly opened his inventory, inspecting the newest additions to his collection.
Lodeshard
A piece of an ancient Lodestone, broken off by worshippers many centuries ago. Carries with it a spark of healing magic, allowing it to mend wounds. It will regain its glow whenever in the presence of a Lodestone.
¡®The first Lodestones fell from the sky eons ago, rife with the magical energies of the cosmos. Men of that era called them the tears of Mother Benedicta, for they mended all wounds and woes.¡¯
¡°Mother Benedicta?¡± Riley mumbled. He shook his head. That part wasn¡¯t what was important, he told himself. What was important was that this thing could, apparently heal wounds. But how?
Closing the menu, Riley rotated the chunk of glittering quartz in his hand. He brought it closer to his aching side, before a sudden flash shone from the surface. The glow from the shard vanished, rendering it dull and grey. And so too did the pain in Riley¡¯s side.
¡°Whoa,¡± he murmured. ¡°Something like this would be worth a fortune back home.¡± Was there a limit to the kind of wounds it could heal? Riley briefly pondered the applications of such a device, all the good it could have done back home. He supposed he¡¯d have to wait and see how potent it truly was. But, he hoped, he wouldn¡¯t be getting another spear through the chest any time soon.
Sighing, Riley moved to stand. ¡°Come on, let¡¯s see about reaching that town.¡±
XI. Myrons Pike
The next few days saw Riley travelling the snowswept roads with very little in the way of rest or respite. He walked from sunrise for as far as his legs would carry him, stopping only whenever a monster or wild animal or shambling corpse sought to attack him. He had yet to encounter anything more dangerous than the creatures stalking the halls of Fort Bane, fortunately.
While this was safer, the downside was that he had very little in the way of extra Essence to work with. Not enough to get any more of his stats boosted for the time being.
A question hung vivid in his mind throughout his trek, and he occasionally asked himself why he was even doing this. Why even keep going? He had little plan or direction beyond venturing to a warmer climate and from there... from there he¡¯s have to kill monsters? Keep killing them unto eternity, in some bizarre cosmic war?
Part of him wanted to flop down in the snow and just spend is eternity rotting. It sounded preferable to being murdered over and over again. But, ultimately, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to. People were in danger, from the sound of things, and he knew he had to do whatever he could to mitigate that.
Riley thought back to what his father had said, when he was barely older than a toddler.
Our family has been involved with medicine since the pioneer days, son. It¡¯s a job that always needs doing, he had said. The world needs healers. It¡¯s always gonna have people that require help, people suffering and ailing. And I hope you¡¯re willing to help those people when the need comes.
The need had certainly come. Kerberos and its people needed someone to stick up for it, and it seemed he¡¯d drawn the short straw. He¡¯d do whatever he could for them as a fighter, but if the chance to play healer cropped up he¡¯d gladly take it. So, whenever doubt crept up in his mind, he thought of his father¡¯s words. This was just another job that needed doing.
Those thoughts cropped up whenever he doubted himself, pushing him to keep going.
Come sundown, when the world grew even colder and even more imposing, Riley made camp with his two cohorts. Arubis, kindly as ever, made a point of storing kindling in whatever nebulous storage space she made use of, so there was always enough to light a fire for grilling some game. The food in his inventory, fortunately, did not seem to run the risk of spoiling.
That didn¡¯t mean it tasted good. But, then again, Riley had never cooked anything more complex than instant noodles. Grilling blackened steak over a campfire in the middle of nowhere was outside his area of expertise.
Anything beat starving, he told himself.
That small town he¡¯d seen from on high grew closer and closer, looming larger, and it seemed increasingly that it wasn¡¯t a dilapidated ruin like Fort Bane. When Riley got a closer vantage point one afternoon he could see people, little moving dots from afar, going about their business while horses and carriages came and went from the gates.
He couldn¡¯t imagine the zombies of Fort Bane putting on a show like that.
¡°Not all of Kerberos has fallen to ruin,¡± Arubis had said one day. ¡°But plague, war, and strife have decimated swathes of this land, scouring kingdoms and empires. You are fortunate whenever you come across an enclave of civilization. And such places are usually keen to aid Wardens. Only...¡±
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Riley had given her a curious glance, his head tilted. ¡°Only?¡±
¡°Only your guise as a plague wizard... that may make things difficult. Aqar¡¯Ghul is not an agent of the Malformed Chaos, but she is still not loved by the commonfolk for the nature of her power.¡±
¡°Wonderful...¡±
That conversation had loomed in Riley¡¯s mind as he made his final approach to the town. It was high noon, but the sun was struggling to peek through a rolling blanket of clouds. The walls to the town were far larger up close, and he could occasionally see men adorned in furry cloaks patrolling atop them.
With each step he became increasingly aware of his own attire, the robes of some profaned goddess. But it wasn¡¯t as if he had other options. The corpses he found in the wilds were adorned in nothing but rotten filth-stained rags, which weren¡¯t ideal for any weather. Even removing the mask would do little to hide the apparently blasphemous symbols on his robe. He could only hope that Arubis could vouch for him.
Mesquard emerged from his pocket as he made his approach to the gates. Goodness. So many sounds and smells from this place. The bounty of food must be rich!
¡°I suppose for you, yes,¡± But Riley intended on being more discerning when it came to his meals.
Two guards were posted by the rear gates of the town, and perked up as Riley¡¯s entourage approached. They parted their fur cloaks, revealing dark orange tabbards above their chainmail. Different to the darker colours adorned by Klaus and his men.
¡°Hold, Crow!¡± one of the men barked, shaking snowflakes from his beard. ¡°What business have you at Myron¡¯s Pike?¡±
Riley awkwardly touched the beak of his mask. ¡°Oh. Crow,¡± he mumbled in realisation. ¡°I... am a Warden. I¡¯m here for uh... supplies and such.¡±
The two guards exchanged an uncertain glance. They dropped into what they presumed was a muffled conversation, but Riley could hear them rather plainly.
¡°A Warden? Wearin¡¯ robes like those?¡±
¡°Well Wardens tend to be queer sorts, don¡¯t they? My nan, she told me she once met a Warden who called ¡®imself a mad bomber, went around with all these explosives on his belt.¡±
¡°Your nan was a loony.¡±
¡°My nan was a saint you grubby bastard!¡±
Arubis cleared her throat, drawing their eyes. ¡°I know it seems strange, noble sirs, but it is true. This man is a Warden, and I am his Oracle.¡±
The guards leaned forward on their spears for a better look. ¡°She¡¯s got them snake eyes, just like in the stories.¡±
¡°Yeah. Can¡¯t fake that. Suppose he¡¯s genuine, then.¡±
They exchanged an uncertain glance, before the bearded guard returned his gaze to Riley. ¡°You can go on through. But cause any trouble, and you¡¯ll regret it. And don¡¯t go spreading no disease! We got enough of that as is.¡±
Riley walked past the two, mindful of their glares all the while. He breathed a sigh of relief as he passed through the gates. Some measure of safety, at last. Mesquard poked his head from Riley¡¯s pocket again, looking distinctly disgruntled.
The nerve of those knaves! As if they had any right to judge you, esteemed emissary!
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, Mesquard,¡± Riley replied. He could endure uneasy glares as long as he could spend the night under an actual roof.
And the uneasy glares were in abundance as he walked past rows of ramshackle wooden buildings. Pockmarked peasants watched Riley from every alley and doorway, their expressions grim and sullen. It was a stark contrast to living in a big city, Riley noted, where people generally strove to avoid looking at each other as much as humanly possible.
Occasionally, as he went along, he could hear words of muttered conversation drifting his way, few of which could be repeated politely. The people of Myron¡¯s Pike didn¡¯t seem to have any kind words for a man dressed as Riley was.
He passed several streets, rounded a corner, and kept moving until the rear gate had vanished entirely from sight. Riley turned and glanced toward the distant mountains, checking to see if there was any trace of Fort Bane on the horizon. Wherever it was up there, it was lost behind a haze of thick snowy mist. How far had he walked?
He pressed on, ignoring the uneasy stares of the citizens, until he reached an expansive area that seemed to be a town square. The structures in the area had been built to give a wide berth to a stone statue that loomed several heads taller than Riley.
It depicted a woman in a flowing, hooded robe. Two pairs of wings sprouted from her shoulder blades and the small of her back. For as angelic as the woman looked, her wings were leathery like those of a dragon. A Lodestone glowed at her feet, her hands spread out as if she were gesturing toward it.
Riley walked toward the stone and let his right hand rest upon it. The stone resonated at his touch, radiating a warm glow.
¡°Finally,¡± Riley huffed ¡°A place to catch my breath.¡±
XII. Avatars of Chaos
The door to the Fisherman¡¯s Inn creaked noisily as Riley pushed his way inside. The interior was largely empty, save for two old timers playing dominoes (or something that at least looked an awful lot like dominoes to Riley) near the hearth, and an old man smoking behind the counter. He watched Riley beneath a pair of bushy brows.
¡°Out,¡± he gruffly said. ¡°I ain¡¯t havin¡¯ a Crow under my roof.¡±
¡°I¡¯m not-¡± Riley huffed and grimaced behind his mask, an indignant shudder racing up his body. ¡°I know this will sound ridiculous, but I¡¯m not a worshipper of Aqar¡¯Ghul.¡±
¡°He is a Warden,¡± Arubis said, emerging from behind him.
The owner gave Arubis a cautious glance, paying particular focus to her eyes. ¡°I suppose... if one such as yourself vouches for him, then it¡¯s fine. But he ain¡¯t staying for free.¡±
¡°That tends to be how inns work, yes,¡± Riley said under his breath. He reached for one of the many pouches on his belt. He had scavenged an extra handful of dull electrum coins from the various shambling corpses on the trail. Not enough to really weigh his coinpurse down, but it was better than total poverty.
¡°Er... how much?¡± he asked.
¡°Four feathers for a night.¡±
Riley lifted four coins into view. On the front of each one was printed a tiny number 1, while the back of each was printed with a furrowed feather quill. He set four down before the stern innkeeper, who grumbled as he slid them under the counter.
He said nothing, just watched Riley and Arubis with a steely glare. Then, slowly, he fished out a key and tossed it onto the counter. ¡°Fifth room on the upper floor.¡±
¡°Thanks,¡± Riley said, taking the key and promptly hurrying upstairs. Four coins for a night did not sound like much. But he had a distinct feeling that the price would raise significantly if he chose to stay for multiple nights.
The room itself was about what Riley expected. Scarcely large enough for three people to walk around in, with only one bed positioned by a snow-spackled window.
Riley cursed. ¡°Should have asked for a second bed,¡± he muttered. ¡°Stay here Arubis, I¡¯ll pay for a room for you-¡±
¡°There is no need. Please do not worry yourself. I can render myself incorporeal when night comes.¡±
She did have a tendency to come and go at times, Riley noted. A woman who seemed to casually shift between being a human and a specter.
¡°If... you¡¯re sure.¡± Riley still felt awkward about it, selfish in a way. It was in his nature to want to help people if it was possible, even if Arubis was fine with vanishing come nightfall.
¡°I am. It would be wasteful to give me a room. I shared the tree with you solely to keep you warm. But, otherwise, I need not sleep.¡±
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Mesquard scurried from his pocket and clambered to the top of the headboard. This is... only a very mild improvement over my ancestral homeland, the rodent mused, his gaze sweeping from one end of the room to the other.
¡°Seems like this place is kind of low end as far as inns go,¡± Riley replied. He took a seat on the bed and removed his mask. He shook his hair loose and breathed a sigh of relief at the chilly breeze that caressed his sweat-slick face. ¡°But I am kind of curious about this town being in tact like this. Considering how wretched Fort Bane was and all.¡±
¡°Supply lines through the Empire have been in chaos for a while now, much of the military focusing their efforts on securing the inner core of imperial land,¡± Arubis explained, folding her hands together. ¡°Small towns like this are isolated and remote, enough to avoid the worst of things for the time being. But Fort Bane was doubtless cut off from any military aid for many years, while madness took root and gnawed at the minds of those who remained.¡±
Riley frowned. ¡°You figure the people there were good people, once?¡±
¡°It¡¯s possible. But, on the other hand, they took great pleasure in the killing of wildmen who were likely no threat to them,¡± Arubis said. She gave him a faint shrug. ¡°Do not worry too much, Riley. The Rot had taken root in them. Killing them was a mercy.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know if I can accept that. A lot of bad people have said they were doing ¡®the right thing¡¯ while killing folks. I¡¯d rather not go that route, if I can help it.¡± He supposed he¡¯d simply have to get used to killing people. That was just how life was in Kerberos. He sighed, deciding to change the subject. ¡°So... what do we do now? Where do we go? I¡¯ve just been winging it.¡±
¡°Well... The main thing is to venture westward, toward the heart of the empire,¡± Arubis said, leaning against one of the walls. ¡°That is where the forces of Chaos will come in abundance, throwing their weight against the bulwark of civilization. Kill those who are the most heavily infused with the ruinous essence of Rot, War, Conquest, or Death. And, if you grow strong enough, you may even be able to best the Avatars of these forces.¡±
¡°Avatars?¡± he asked.
¡°The sources of these forces, given a tangible and physical form. To destroy them would be to strike a great blow against our enemy.¡±
¡°From the sound of things, this whole conflict has been going on for a long time. Nobody¡¯s taken down these Avatars before now?¡± he asked, leaning forward.
Arubis frowned. ¡°These Avatars are power personified. Demigods would perhaps be an apt term for them. Many Wardens have grown exceptionally strong over the years. But reaching that level of strength... I don¡¯t know of any who have achieved such a feat.¡±
Riley closed his eyes. ¡°Nothing can ever be easy, can it?¡±
¡°It is called the Path of Strife, Riley,¡± Arubis calmly told him.
¡°But... hypothetically, if someone was able to kill these four Avatars, could they kill this Chaos thing?¡± Arubis seemed to believe it was possible, though unlikely, that the Avatars could be bested. And presumably, their creator could go down the same way too. Riley was immortal now, from the sound of things, so he had all eternity to try. Not that the thought thrilled him.
A gentle laugh rose in Arubis¡¯ throat. ¡°I admire your optimism. But, for now, perhaps you should not let your ambitions outweigh your capabilities. If you can surmount the Avatars, then there is a possibility of besting their parent... but that destination is very far from where we stand now.¡±
¡°Right.¡± Still, the prospect never strayed too far from Riley¡¯s mind. If he could put a stop to all this Chaos nonsense, perhaps he could enjoy a normal, relaxing afterlife. If there was a chance for that, he had to take it.
Still, a worry festered in the back of his mind. If all Wardens were immortal, and could do this in perpetuity, how had nobody bested the Avatars by now? Just how powerful were they? Moreover, he couldn''t help but feel Arubis knew something that she wasn''t keen on telling him...
¡°Well we¡¯re gonna need a map, regardless. We were damn lucky there was a town visible from Fort Bane, but I¡¯d rather not go blind from here.¡± Back in his old life, he was terrified to venture anywhere without a map open on his phone. And now the risk of getting randomly stabbed to death for going the wrong way was significantly higher.
¡°Of course,¡± Arubis replied. She made for the door, her footsteps as silent as ever. ¡°Please, rest. I shall get one for you. I¡¯m certain the local hunters will have a rather accurate one for the region drawn up. But, for the broader reaches of the Vergoll Empire, we likely won¡¯t find an accurate map until we¡¯re deeper inland.¡±
Riley was about to tell her that she didn¡¯t need to get one on is behalf, but then he recalled the wary reactions he had gotten from the townsfolk. Whatever Aubis was, it seemed people trusted and liked her far more than they did him. ¡°I¡¯ll leave you to it, Arubis. Thank you.¡±
She chuckled, giving him a parting glance over her shoulder. ¡°You are my Warden, Riley. Aiding you is my duty.¡±
Riley watched her go, and breathed a small sigh once he was (mostly) alone. He reclined on the bed, while Mesquard made himself comfortable in his perch. Lady Arubis is quite kind, is she not?
¡°Yeah... she sure is,¡± Riley replied, managing a weak smile.
With how grim his situation was, he had to take comfort wherever he could.
XIII. A Frozen Ruin
If Riley hadn¡¯t spent the past few nights sleeping in the unpleasant wilderness, with nothing but snow for a blanket, he would have felt more uncomfortable about sharing a bed with a talking rodent. The bed itself was a scrawny mattress barely lined with hay. But it felt absolutely heavenly that night, the most comfortable bed Riley had ever slept in.
Come the morning, heralded by the crowing of a heinously loud bird, Riley rose quickly and got set for the morning. Save for removing his boots he had slept fully clothed, which suited Riley just fine against the stinging chill.
¡°You figure we¡¯d be able to buy a horse with the funds we have?¡± he asked as he adjusted the latches of his mask.
¡°That seems... unlikely,¡± Arubis admitted, managing a comforting smile.
¡°Yeah... guess I figured as much.¡±
A shame. Horse meat is quite delectable, Mesquard said, clambering up Riley¡¯s sleeve and into his pocket.
Riley frowned. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know.¡± And he hoped to never know, if he could help it.
Food was, originally, not included in the deal for their room. But a few kind pleas to the innkeeper from Arubis yielded them a thin, grey gruel to eat. Which was, as with the bed, objectively unpleasant but subjectively quite edible after days of poorly grilled steak.
When it came to food, resources were scarce. The winter had been harder than usual, diminishing the amount of grain in the silos. The fish in the rivers, similarly, had grown scarce. And illness was spreading through the livestock of some of the outlying farms. They had to be content with what they could get, he supposed.
They left the inn behind, and were greeted by a thin miasma of fog lining the streets. Few people were out and about. Those that were either watched Riley cautiously from their porches, or gave the duo a wide berth in the streets. Warden or not, his attire made him a subject of wariness.
Riley didn¡¯t mind too much. Even if this town had a Lodestone, he doubted he¡¯d ever have reason to come back.
¡°Now then,¡± Arubis said, reaching into a pocket on her robe and pulling out a rolled parchment that seemed far too big for the pocket, ¡°I was able to acquire this from a preacher at the local temple. He was quite content to lend his aid to an Oracle.¡±
¡°Yeah... people do seem to like you a lot more than me.¡±
Arubis unfurled the parchment, revealing a somewhat faded map. It sported a sketched outline of Myron¡¯s Pike, and a few dotted lines that signified the roads that led from the town. Riley made note of a few smaller villages on the map, potential rest stops on their journey westward. But what really drew his eye was the sketch of a city, far larger than the outline of Myron¡¯s Pike, on the rim of the map.
¡°Alderberg,¡± Riley murmured, running a gloved finger over the text.
¡°One of the larger eastern cities in the empire,¡± Arubis said. ¡°Said to be something of a bulwark, last I heard. Though... it¡¯s entirely possible it is suffering under greater strain than an isolated town like this.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
¡°So... it could have collapsed?¡±
¡°Perhaps ¡®collapsed¡¯ is too strong a word. But it¡¯s possible the city may be facing some manner of threat. Larger population centres draw the eyes of Chaos.¡±
¡°Which means it¡¯s possible there¡¯s more Essence to gather,¡± Riley noted.
¡°And more strength to be gained!¡± Arubis chimed.
Then let us be off, noble companions!
The northern gates to the town saw much more activity than the rear one. Travellers came too and fro, guards practised their archery on a crude range, and stable workers tended to a collection of thin, sickly looking horses.
Riley took one look at them and decided he¡¯d probably go faster on foot than half of them. He pressed on, walking along the cobbled road that led from Myron¡¯s Pike. It had been salted for a considerable stretch, a line of stone that cut a path through the blankets of whiteness.
But, eventually, the road ahead was swallowed entirely by the snow. It would have been impossible to tell where it started or ended, were it not for the half-rotted wooden lampposts that flanked the road on either side. There was a gap of twenty meters between each lamppost, and Riley noted an unerring consistency in this pattern.
The journey over the next few days was relatively uneventful. They passed by only a handful of other travellers on the road, who watched them with gaunt faces and tired eyes. Come night, as before, they made camp in any area that provided even a modicum of cover from the elements.
Hunting kept them afloat when it came to food, each dead animal giving Riley a pittance of Essence. Snow, while unpleasant, worked well enough for hydration when nothing else would do. But, eventually, a stream came into view from the road, and he was able to drink from it more than once on their westward push.
Though Riley found, generally, he didn¡¯t need to eat as regularly now as he had in his old life. A small blessing of being a Warden, he supposed.
They were a week out from Myron¡¯s Pike, on the cusp of sunset, when Riley spotted something that gave him pause: A wooden farmhouse with a thatched roof. He huffed into his mask. ¡°Think we could get some shelter here? Ah, hell with it, I¡¯ve gotta try.¡±
¡°Of course, Warden,¡± Arubis said. ¡°It can¡¯t hurt to try!¡±
Mesquard hummed in the back of Riley¡¯s mind. Caution, noble wizard. The air here, something about it smells... wrong.
¡°Wrong? In what way?¡±
I am uncertain. But there¡¯s a foulness to the air that sets my whiskers on edge.
Riley nodded. They had passed only one other Lodestone since leaving Myron¡¯s Pike, but it would still set him back a considerable distance if he died here. But, nothing ventured nothing gained. He clutched his staff and hatchet as he made his way to the rickety structure.
Once he drew close enough, he could see that a part of the thatched roof had collapsed, and the boards on one wall were torn and askew. And the utter darkness inside the house did little to put Riley¡¯s mind at ease.
By the time he could see the shattered remnants of a chicken coop off to one side of the house, Riley knew the place was abandoned. Sad as that was, the building still had a (mostly) intact roof. And, potentially, supplies worth grabbing.
The front door was only barely hanging on the hinges as Riley opened it. A thick coating of dust lined the floor of the entryway, each step leaving a distinct footprint on the floorboards. Riley peered into each room in passing, finding no trace of any humans alive or dead. But he did see signs of a struggle.
Scythe-like clawmarks in the walls, broken floorboards, splashes of blood that had dried into the wood. At least a few days old, by Riley¡¯s reckoning. And he had yet to see a body, or even a discarded body part. Either the people who had been attacked managed to escape with their lives, or whatever had killed them left no traces behind.
¡°Great,¡± he eventually murmured, slicing through the silence like a knife. ¡°Something pretty bad must have happened here. But it¡¯s quiet now, at least.¡±
¡°Do you... still wish to stay here?¡± Arubis warily asked. She ran her finger over a table, dragging up a large bale of dust in the process.
¡°Well... I¡¯m not gonna enjoy it. But it¡¯s nice to go five minutes without having the wind trying to slice through me.¡± Sleeping in an abandoned home where the previous occupants had either been assaulted or murdered... another thing Riley never thought he would have to do before now.
Mesquard sniffed the air again. It is still... unpleasant here. Death lingers in the air. But there may still be some things here worth pilfering.
¡°Only one way to find out.¡± Riley tightened is grip on his hatchet and pressed onward to explore the abandoned house.
XIV. The Living Dead
Riley found little of value inside the house. Two waterskins, a few bags holding strips of jerky, and a modest handful of coins that barely added a pittance of weight to the coin he was carrying. He wasn¡¯t exactly proud of himself, robbing from people who were either dead or on the run, but things being as they were... he could hardly afford to get hung up on morality.
If anything made this trek easier for himself, he was willing to take it.
They made a fire in the hearth, the main room of the house having been largely untouched by whatever had ravaged the rest of it. Warm orange light filled the room, a contrast to the pitch blackness outside. Even the glow of the broken moon didn¡¯t pierce the clouds.
Riley had removed his gloves, resting them in his lap while he warmed his hands. ¡°Not a bad way to spend the night, huh?¡± he bluntly asked.
Mesquard sat on his haunches. The rat had been on edge from the moment they entered the house. But aside from signs of a struggle, Riley couldn¡¯t see anything that was a cause for concern. It¡¯s warmer here than in your pocket, I suppose. And this ¡®jerky¡¯ is rather tasty, he reluctantly admitted.
Arubis netted her hands together in her lap, the old rocking chair beneath her creaking at even the slightest movements. ¡°I suppose we should make use of shelters such as this wherever possible. We have to cross large stretches of wilderness out this way.¡±
¡°True enough,¡± Riley murmured. If he ever made it back to his old life, as unlikely a pipe dream as it sounded, he¡¯d punch the lights out of anyone who spoke romantically of the snow. ¡°So uh... how far to the nearest town?¡±
¡°I am not entirely sure. The map is not too precise when it comes to distance, Riley,¡± she replied, her serpentine eyes affixed to the flickering fire. ¡°If memory serves, there should be a mining colony only a few days ahead of us. Orespeak.¡±
¡°Mm. Prospectors, huh? Might be more shelter to make use of.¡± He examined their surroundings, letting his hands rest upon the dusty floor. Ideally it wouldn¡¯t be totally abandoned as this place seemed to me.
The wind whistled through the holes in the house¡¯s walls, kicking up a horrible wailing sound that sent shivers racing down the length of Riley¡¯s body. He grit his teeth.
¡°It is certainly better to be indoors on a night such as this,¡± Arubis admitted.
Mesquard twitched. The smell in the air grows thicker, he remarked.
¡°You¡¯ve been saying that for a while now. But what kind of smell are we talking about here?¡±
The same kind that stalked the halls of Fort Bane. Death, but tenfold fouler.
Another wailing gust echoed through the halls, this one strong enough to make the walls and floorboards creak in protest. Riley turned his gaze to the window, watching as a few stray snowflakes were blown into the crude glass.
¡°So... monsters?¡± he asked, slowly pulling his gloves back on. He had made sure to close the door behind them in a bid to conserve whatever warmth the fire could provide. But, even with no way for anyone to sneak up on them from behind, he had kept his weapons resting at his sides on the floor.
Of a sort, yes, Mesquard said, turning his nose up to face Riley. A foul sickness, unlike those crafted by beloved Mother Aqar¡¯Ghul. An aberration most vile, not meant to exist in our world.
¡°The Rot,¡± Arubis murmured.
No. But kindred to it.
The wind grew more intense, followed by a resounding bang as the front door was blown inward. It crashed and clattered against the wall, spurring Riley to his feet with his weapons clutched firmly. He stood, facing the window, just as the clouds parted enough to allow a sliver of moonlight through.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
The snow stirred.
Slowly, pitch black figures rose up from the frosty ground, chunks of white sloughing off their oily black flesh. They bore the shape of a human, but their arms and legs were unnaturally long. And when one of the three figures turned to face the window, Riley saw that he had no face at all: Merely a great black void, that seemed so deep that a person could push their whole arm into without touching any surface beyond.
Arubis¡¯ eyes widened, a shocked gasp rising in her throat. ¡°Barrowmen!¡±
The door behind them was suddenly smashed into a pile of splinters, one of the lanky figures creeping through the doorway. He was silent, save for the wet slapping of his footsteps.
Riley tensed where he stood, eyes widening as the lanky figure made his way closer. The other barrowmen outside were drawing toward the window, brandishing their sharp talons. Save for one, who held a sickle-like blade that hissed with choking smoke.
Riley flung himself to one side as one barrowman rushed his way, the creature¡¯s claws cleaving a chunk from the stone wall. Riley grunted and slammed his hatchet into the undead¡¯s back, smoke spraying from the freshly gouged wound. Yet the barrowman scarcely noticed, swatting Riley across the room. He grunted and skidded to a halt, driving his staff into the floor to halt his momentum.
The creatures outside started striking the wall, tearing great chunks from it. A cold, wailing wind breached the freshly made holes in the wall, making the flame in the hearth sputter.
Four of them, Mesquard said, scurrying into the shadows.
¡°At least,¡± Riley mumbled. Now was aa good a time as any to give his new spell a field test, he supposed. ¡°Mesquard, get into cover! You too Arubis!¡± He didn¡¯t know if his magic could even touch her, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Riley raised his staff as the four shadowy creatures stalked his way. They were slow, but he didn¡¯t dare take more than a few hits from them. Already his side ached, and that was just from a glancing blow.
A thrum of power raced through his body, focusing on the tip of his staff. Then a violent purple glow shot up the obsidian tip, a shock wave shuddering down Riley¡¯s arm. Rippling waves of light, only barely visible in the dark, radiated toward the barrowmen.
Horrid groans echoed from their void-like mouths, as black pustules began to break out on their oily flesh. Sections of their skin began to peel away, curling up like rinds of fruit. Yet, for as damaging as the spell was, Riley was soon huffing from the exertion. He swayed uneasily on his feet, sweat pouring down his face. He could only maintain the Flesh-Rend for a few seconds before the strain became too great, and he nearly dropped his staff as he ended the spell.
The shrieks and groans of the barrowmen soon fell silent, the figures left briefly hunches over from the pain. Riley grit his teeth and powered through the fatigue, rushing toward the nearest barrowman. His arm windmilled down, cleaving the air with his hatchet, and cut the creature¡¯s head from his shoulders in a single swing.
By the time his headless corpse hit the ground, the other three had mostly recovered from the pain. One swept his arm toward Arubis, who stood by the remnants of the door. Riley¡¯s eyes widened, a cry of alarm rising in his throat. Yet when he struck her, Arubis¡¯ body became as mist. His claw passed clean through her, and Arubis reformed a few seconds later as if nothing had happened at all.
¡°Damn,¡± Riley murmured in disbelief. One less thing to worry about, at least.
The one with the sickle lunged at him with uncanny quickness, his blade leaving a smoking trail in the air behind it. It came quicker than Riley expected, and he only narrowly raised his hatchet in time to block the strike. The impact still swept him off his feet, slamming Riley¡¯s body into the far wall. A pained gasp rose in his throat, punctuated by a sharp, stabbing pain in his ribs.
Grimacing, Riley stumbled back as two of the barrowmen staggered his way. He ducked low, his side screaming in protest, avoiding a claw that ploughed deep into the wall. His hatchet swept upward, cutting through the barrowman¡¯s elbow and releasing a spray of smoke from the stump. And yet the creature only barely noticed, turning his eyeless glare toward Riley.
He broke into a ragged sprint, dodging several swipes and stabs from the beasts. ¡°Come on, come on,¡± he huffed. Riley knew he had to get more space on his side. Fighting these creatures in an enclosed room was just making things easier for them, and it was only their staggering gait that kept him from being torn asunder.
A glancing blow caught Riley in the back, bowling him over and sending him skidding him toward the far wall. Riley wheezed in pain, his vision swimming wildly. He rolled onto his side, numb hands fumbling for the Lodeshard hitched to his belt.
The blade-toting barrowman strode forward and raised his weapon high. His attack was only halted when Mesquard, suddenly appearing above the creature¡¯s right shoulder, bit into an exposed section of his neck and tore directly at the ebony sinews beneath. The barrowman shrieked, seizing up long enough for Riley to grip the Lodeshard and press it tightly.
The pain in his body was washed away in an instant, a startled gasp rising in Riley¡¯s throat. He gripped his hatchet with renewed focus and lunged at the barrowman just as Mesquard was flung away. The blade bit into the barrowman¡¯s neck, his head shorn halfway off. Both he and his blade hit the ground with a clatter, leaving just two of the creatures left.
Riley raised his staff as both monsters rushed toward him as quickly as their awkward gait could carry them. A short pulse of Flesh-Rend erupted from his staff, lasting for barely three seconds. Using it still sent a kick through Riley¡¯s body, but more of the barrowmen¡¯s flesh was shredded from that brief burst of magic.
Riley grit his teeth and lunged at the nearest one, killing him with two swift strikes to the neck. But the other recovered with unexpected quickness, lashing his gnarled hand outward and sweeping Riley into a nearby wall. A shudder raced up his body the pain nearly tearing a scream from his lips.
He righted himself, a few shaky breaths rising in his throat. The last barrowman, undaunted by the deaths of his kin, shambled his way. Riley jabbed his staff forward, punching the sharpened tip under the monster¡¯s ribs. It groaned, briefly jolted backward, allowing Riley to sweep the hatchet forward with his other hand.
A hard blow caught him in the temple, cleaving into gnarled flesh and bone, knocking him to the ground. Riley pressed on, shouting at the top of his lungs as he hit the barrowman¡¯s head again and again, until the writhing monster finally fell still and silent.
Riley huffed and stumbled back, sagging against the wall. He stared, briefly, at the fast-dying embers in the fireplace. His heavy breathing was the only sound left on an otherwise silent night.
So much for a peaceful and relaxing night.
XV. Meeting the Hedge Knight
Riley, unsurprisingly, did not sleep well that night. Despite the pain and fatigue in his body, the fear of more barrowmen rising from the snow left him too on edge to relax. And with yet more holes in the house, it was back to freezing bis backside off for the night.
Barrowmen, Arubis had said, were a somewhat common breed of undead. Those who died, rife with Rot in their bodies, were left to mutate into something no longer human, at which point Death could will them to rise agan. The plus side was that they were nocturnal. The downside was they were very good at blending in with their surroundings until the time came to emerge.
It was all too likely that the residents of the house had been menaced and slain by something abhorrent, and in death they had been remade into monsters of the Rot.
Each one had been worth 700 Essence. This, coupled with the Essence he¡¯d steadily been gathering thus far, was enough to raise another stat. Silver linings and all that.
But what really caught Riley¡¯s eye, after the sun had risen and his nerves had calmed, was the blade dropped by one of the barrowmen. He sat against the remnants of a ruined wall, inspecting the smoky black metal for several seconds.
Barrowman¡¯s Shotel
A blade commonly wielded by barrowmen. Though short, it is exceptionally sharp and sturdy, able to cut into flesh and armour alike. Causes steady poison build up in enemies.
¡®Rot and Death are the closest of siblings among the Avatars. Those slain by the former often rise again as agents of the latter, creating a terrifying cycle of death and plague.¡¯
Riley weighed the blade in his hand. It certainly looked more professional than his hatchet. And the shotel¡¯s damage rating ranked higher than the hatchet¡¯s. But it felt awkward and heavy in his hand. He checked it again in his inventory, and noticed a small string of text taking shape beneath the description.
This weapon requires 15 Nimbleness to use effectively.
¡°Huh. I¡¯m a point off, but... Seems a waste not to upgrade to something stronger than my current weapon.¡± He stroked the tip over a nearby brick, cutting a line straight through the stone. ¡°Might as well get something out of this awful ordeal.¡±
He glanced over to Arubis as she made her way toward him. ¡°Ah. Do you wish to raise your Nimbleness, then? You can afford that much, with your current Essence.¡±
¡°Yes, please.¡±
Arubis held a hand toward him and did so, siphoning a great chunk of the Essence he had gathered.
He gripped the shotel tighter and found that he could move it around with greater ease and swiftness. He flicked and rotated his wrist a few times.
Be mindful of that blade, emissary, Mesquard said, coming to a halt near Riley¡¯s foot. It may not be radiating blight, like the man who used it, but it is still a tool born of evil.
¡°Yeah... admittedly, this won¡¯t do me any favours when it comes to people thinking I¡¯m evil.¡± Oh well. It was a simple fact of his life now, he supposed.
Riley sighed and rose to his feet. ¡°I guess we should get a move on. Nothing else for us here.¡± Though he had learned the hard way that the world around him was far more dangerous at night. He helped Mesquard onto his shoulder before making his way through the nearest hole in the wall. The plan remained the same: Keep pressing westward.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
But, as he stepped out onto the snow, he noticed Mesquard growing tense again. Something draws near. Hoofbeats, like a deer.
¡°Shit,¡± Riley muttered, gripping the shotel tighter. ¡°Might be nothing. Just... just another traveller, or something like that.¡± He took a few steps forward, and soon heard the pounding of hooves drawing closer and closer.
Arubis followed a few paces behind him, glancing to the horizon. Something appeared on the horizon, drawing closer and closer. The warm sunlight of the morning illuminated the figure as it drew closer. Two riders atop a sleek white steed.
The person holding the reins was adorned in silvery plates of armour, their head concealed by a great helm with a glowing orange plume on top. But, behind them, Riley quickly saw a woman adorned in the same robes as Arubis.
¡°Oh shoot,¡± Riley murmured. ¡°Is that... another Warden?¡±
¡°It would appear so. It would be rare for one of my kin to travel with anyone else,¡± Arubis calmly replied.
¡°They¡¯re... coming right for us. And... awfully fast too.¡±
The rider reached for the handle protruding above their right shoulder and swiftly unsheathed a worryingly long and broad blade. It gleamed brilliantly when the light struck it.
¡°Oh... shit! Shit!¡± Riley moved back as the rider leapt from the saddle with uncanny agility, an orange cloak fluttering behind them. Riley raised his hand to block an incoming swing, but the force of the impact swept his feet from under him and knocked him flat on his ass. In an instant the stranger was looming over him, raising their blade high overhead.
¡°Cultist wretch!¡±
¡°Wait wait wait, I¡¯m not a cultist! I¡¯m a Warden!¡± he shouted.
¡°It¡¯s true, noble warrior! Please, stay your blade!¡±
The armoured figure looked to Arubis, their steed coming to a sudden halt only a few paces away from them. ¡°An Oracle?¡± they murmured. Riley¡¯s eyes widened. The voice echoing through the metal helmet sounded distinctly feminine.
¡°Y-yeah, she¡¯s an Oracle! S-so cool your damn jets!¡±
¡°Cool my... oh. Yeah, that¡¯s a saying on Earth. You¡¯re the genuine article alright. My bad.¡± She moved to sheath her blade, holding an ironclad hand out for him to take. ¡°It¡¯s just, usually, anyone wearing those robes is bad news. Why in the hell are you dressed like a damn plague wizard?¡±
¡°It was the best class I had available,¡± Riley mumbled. He took her hand and gasped a the woman hoisted him clean to his feet as if he were a cloth doll.
¡°Shit, really? The Arbiter has a sick sense of humour,¡± the stranger muttered. ¡°Do yourself a favour and get some new gear. You must be really new to all this.¡±
¡°I am. Only been here... shit I dunno. Two weeks? Thereabouts?¡± He paused and sheathed his shotel. A tingle of numbness still radiated down his wrist. The woman had a swing that could have cleaved through him like wet paper, if the metal of the shotel had been less sturdy. ¡°How... long have you been here?¡±
The knight shrugged. ¡°Little more than half a year, I guess. Kinda stopped keeping track after the first few months.¡± He reached over and lifted the visor, revealing a decently attractive, if somewhat broad, face. A thin bridge of freckles covered her nose and cheeks, and a few sweaty strands of golden hair framed the sides of her head. ¡°Kim Anderson.¡±
¡°Riley Blake.¡± It was almost odd to casually exchange names with the person who nearly sliced him in two mere minutes ago. But after fighting a gang of zombies only last night, almost nothing was weird anymore.
At least, that was what he told himself.
The other Oracle wheeled the horse around, tugging the reins to a gentle halt. Getting a better look at the slim figure, Riley could tell that he had been mistaken in his initial impression: The other Oracle was a man, though he had a soft, feminine face, and silky golden hair.
¡°Kimberly... you really must stop flying off the handle like that,¡± he said, peering down at her with placid, serpentine eyes. ¡°I told you that he had a kinsman with him, and someone like that was no lowly cultist of Aqar¡¯Ghul.¡±
¡°You did?¡± she tilted her head slightly. ¡°Huh. Guess I didn¡¯t hear you. When Rudolph is moving like that, and the wind kicks up, it¡¯s kind of hard to hear anything?¡±
Riley spared another glance to the white steed. ¡°Uh... why Rudolph?¡± he asked.
¡°Oh he headbutted a bandit when I met him. Had a big red smear coating his whole snout.¡±
¡°Huh.¡± Riley cleared his throat and motioned to the Oracle behind him. ¡°This is Arubis. She¡¯s my Oracle, but you probably figured that much out already.¡±
¡°Nice to meet you. This is Iosef, my Oracle.¡±
The slim Oracle nodded politely. ¡°Charmed.¡±
An awkward silence fell over the group. Riley examined the woman, paying particular attention to the expert craftsmanship of her armour, and the immensity of her sword. What did she have to do to get such exceptional gear?
Mesquard cleared his throat, poking his head from Riley¡¯s front pocket.
¡°Oh! Right, shit. This is the only other member of our group: Mesquard?¡±
¡°Ha. Kind of cute, for a rat,¡± she said.
Cute? Cute?! Madame, I was a princeling of Fort Bane, and its sole survivor! I am a veteran mankiller! Don¡¯t you dare- Kim brushed a metal finger gently over his head. Mesquard let out a happy groan, leaning into her touch.
Riley rolled his eyes behind the lenses of his mask. ¡°Yeah. Really fierce, bud.¡±
XVI. The Threat of Strangers
Kim kept Rudolph at a slow trot, allowing for Riley and the others to keep pace with them. She too was heading westward, at least for a spell, having spent a considerable amount of time up north. And she seemed happy enough to lend a hand to Riley.
And she did owe him after very nearly cutting him in half.
¡°So what class did you get, after you uh... died?¡± Saying it out loud, Riley had a better grasp of how utterly insane their situation was.
¡°I went with hedge knight. Some of the other options I got were damn weird. Mountain militiaman, merchant guard, bearkiller... Just went with the one that seemed the most practical.¡±
¡°At least the ones you got sounded cool,¡± Riley murmured.
¡°Course it didn¡¯t help that I was freaking out at the time. You know, the whole... recently dead thing,¡± she replied, offering him a casual shrug. ¡°Never thought this was the afterlife, that¡¯s for damn sure.¡±
Riley let out a nervous laugh, trying to swallow down the swell of bitterness he felt. ¡°You and me both.¡±
¡°Still... you¡¯re doing pretty well. Been here only a couple of days and you¡¯ve already grabbed an Aspect? I didn¡¯t kill someone that strong until my second month or so.¡±
¡°Didn¡¯t have much of a choice. Guy was blocking the only way out of the fort. I was basically throwing myself headfirst at a brick wall until it gave way.¡±
¡°Way I hear it, a Warden starts off somewhere random. But usually somewhere on the ass end of civilization. You got pretty unlucky in that regard. But you didn¡¯t lose your resolve, and that¡¯s the important part.¡±
The two Oracles exchanged an uneasy glance, which lasted for only a fraction of a second.
Riley shrugged. ¡°Guess I can brag about it if I end up meeting other Wardens out here. Have you, er, met any other Wardens, Kim?¡±
¡°A handful. From my experience, a lot of our people tend to be er... isolationist. See, not everyone is entirely in agreement with the idea of working together. Some Wardens are of a mind that er... well if another Warden has something worth taking, they¡¯ll try to take it,¡± Kim said.
¡°You mean... they¡¯ll kill other Wardens?¡±
Silence lingered in the air. A Warden killing another Warden would not mean much mechanically, but morally... it was concerning.
Kim sighed. ¡°From time to time. And not accidentally, like I nearly did to you.¡±
¡°Sounds like you¡¯ve had some bad experiences,¡± Riley said.
¡°Oh yeah. Really if you weren¡¯t a noob, I¡¯d be warier around you. But I give the newcomers the benefit of the doubt.¡±
¡°But... I should be wary around any other Wardens I meet?¡± Riley fought the urge to sigh. Just when he¡¯d thought he¡¯d found some allies, it seemed that there was no guarantee of camaraderie when it came to Wardens.
Kim rolled her neck slowly, seeming to put a good amount of thought into how she should phrase things. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t say it¡¯s the majority of Wardens who kill other Wardens. Hell, it¡¯s probably not even a large minority. But the people who do that stuff have made other people paranoid. So a lot of other Wardens are isolationist as a result, not wanting to run the risk of meeting a nutcase. So, I dunno, I guess you should just be cautious.¡±
The best chance he had to survive was just to guess whether or not a person would be a dangerous maniac? Riley frowned at the thought. He didn¡¯t think things could get much worse, but the world was still finding ways to surprise him.
¡°But there are a few groups of Wardens who have banded together, supporting cooperation. Pooling their resources, helping others as they need to. You might still be too green to join up with them, but you¡¯ll be glad to know they¡¯re out there.¡± She turned her head to face him. ¡°The biggest one is called the Band of Brotherhood.¡±
Riley frowned behind his mask. Something of a lame name, but he had to hope they were more skilled than the name implied.
¡°So, you two are heading to Orespeak?¡± Kimberly asked, adjusting herself in her saddle.
Riley nodded. ¡°Kind of a pit stop, I guess. We need to keep heading westward, closer toward civilization. And with how long the journey is gonna take, we gotta regularly get supplies.¡±
¡°Good call. Especially when you don¡¯t have a mount.¡± Kim said. ¡°Another thing you might wanna do ASAP. Only, well, it¡¯s hard to say where you¡¯ll find one worth getting, things being as they are. Best horses usually get snatched up by the imperial army, and everyone else is stuck with nags. Me personally, I only got Rudolph here by luck. Still, Orespeak... man, I haven¡¯t been by there in months. Guess it¡¯ll be nice to check in there.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
¡°Oh? What was it like?¡±
Kim pondered the question, sparing a brief glance to Iosef. ¡°Uh.. nice, wouldn¡¯t you agree?¡±
¡°Not really,¡± the Oracle said in a flat voice.
¡°Aw it wasn¡¯t that bad. They had supplies to trade, the people were um... they were nice, you know. For a bunch of isolated miners.¡± She turned back to Riley. ¡°The Empire is in a pretty rough state these days, so mining colonies are seen as pretty important. Constantly bringing in raw materials to support the army, and maintain the infrastructure of the larger cities.¡±
¡°Not that it has done much good,¡± said Iosef. ¡°Vergoll is in decline, as with many empires and kingdoms that came before it. Even without Chaos gnawing at it from all sides, all empires collapse eventually. Though the new Emperor does little to help with the situation.¡±
Riley tilted his head. ¡°How¡¯s that?¡± he asked.
¡°Well... pray you should not meet them. They are a dangerous individual, and many say he has been gripped with madness. In some respects he is as dangerous to his people as the forces of Malformed Chaos.¡±
¡°Take it he¡¯s no friend to Wardens?¡± Riley asked.
¡°It¡¯s... complicated,¡± Kim said. ¡°Just... well, if you go to the capital, avoid the palace. Not like you¡¯d have much reason to go there, normally.¡±
¡°Man, with how important we Wardens are, you¡¯d think we¡¯d be treated like royalty already.¡± Were it not for Arubis¡¯ presence, he likely would have been turned away at Myron¡¯s Pike. Of course, his attire was partially responsible. But even learning about his nature as a Warden, people had still been wary of him.
Kim shrugged, and he could almost feel the woman smiling at him behind the dense plate of her helmet. ¡°You¡¯ll get used to it, new guy. It¡¯s just another part of the job.¡± She took a firmer grip on her reins and turned her gaze to the horizon. ¡°Come on then, we better keep moving. Wanna cover a bit more ground before we gotta make camp for the night.¡±
They pressed on the next day, and it did not take much longer to reach their destination.
Orespeak stood out from afar, distinguished by great lanterns that cast halos of warm orange light through the swirling mists. When they drew closer still, it was easy to see old wooden structures that had become partially crusted with frost.
At this point, Riley mused, he would be glad if he never saw a single snowflake for the rest of his life.
Kim hummed, reining her steed to halt. ¡°Hang on,¡± she said, peering into the silhouettes partially outlined in the fog. ¡°Something¡¯s not right.¡±
Riley grippe his shotel uneasily in one hand. ¡°W-what do you mean?¡±
¡°Last time I came here, there were patrolmen on the outer perimeter, and you could hear the workers hammering away from this range. Now it¡¯s dead quiet.¡±
¡°She has a point,¡± Arubis said. ¡°I cannot see anyone from here. Not even a silhouette.¡±
Riley frowned. ¡°Bad sign,¡± he noted.
Kim started to dismount, only to freeze in place as a shape began to emerge through the swirling stone. A hunched, humanoid figure clutching something that could only be a pickaxe.
¡°A miner, looks like. Seems you were worried about nothing.¡± Riley let out a nervous laugh, not quite believing his own words.
Kim remained silent. She paused for a moment and suddenly summoned something from her inventory. It looked, at first glance, like a slim glass lantern. But no light shone from within. Instead it was filled with a great molasses-like mass which had sticky tendrils adhering to the glass. The central mass pulsed softly, an oily sphere the size of a fist.
She flicked the glass a few times, aiming toward the oncoming figure. ¡°C¡¯mon, wake up you dumb piece of shit.¡±
The central mass opened up to reveal a slitted purple pupil, the sight of it making Riley lurch backward. ¡°Jesus!¡± he hissed, nearly losing his balance. ¡°What the fuck is that?!¡±
¡°A chaotic auspex. I didn¡¯t choose the name,¡± Kim replied. She aimed the lantern squarely at the shambling figure, which made the eyeball pulse at a higher speed. ¡°Yep. Infected by some kind of Chaos. Damn shame.¡±
She tossed it to Riley, who deftly caught it. He couldn¡¯t help himself, peeking at the item description.
Chaotic Auspex
A putrid mass of rotflesh, safely cut off from its host. It is perfectly preserved, and resonates when in the presence of creatures corrupted by the aspects of Chaos.
A tool commonly used by soldiers, adventurers, and caravan guards, it can be the dividing line between life and death.
Riley clipped the auspex to his belt, his attention returning to the incoming figure. Kim had drawn her sword and was silently advancing toward him.
Now he was able to get a better look at the newcomer. He was a hunched over, his skin deathly pale. His fur clothing was torn in many places, revealing oily black tumors. A swathe of the growths covered his face, some of them completely covering his eyes. A horrible growling noise rose in his throat as he suddenly rushed Kim, his pickaxe held high overhead.
Kim sidestepped the swing, which slammed into the ground hard enough to kick up a spray of stone and snow. Kim¡¯s claymore swept upward a heartbeat later, cleaving him from the left hip to right shoulder. He barely made a sound as his severed body parts thudded onto the snow. Dark strands of Essence flowed into her.
¡°Whole town¡¯s probably been wiped out,¡± she said, flicking blackened blood onto the snow.
¡°You don¡¯t know that for sure,¡± Riley said, slowly making his way over. The two Oracles followed after them, quiet and impassive.
¡°Trust me, I know how these things go. Any survivors either fled, or are barricaded in deep and only barely surviving.¡±
Riley frowned behind his mask. ¡°So... what? This Rot stuff just spreads like a disease, and there¡¯s no way to avoid infection?¡±
¡°It¡¯s not a disease like COVID, or whatever. Doesn¡¯t spread through germs, or the air. It¡¯s... well for things like this, some kind of carrier probably arrived and spread the Rot through direct exposure before anyone could put it down. Like ah... that one movie. You know, the one with that thing that attack those guys in the arctic.¡±
The mental image sent a small shiver through Riley¡¯s body. He gripped his blade tighter and aimed the auspex toward the broader scope of the mining town. The mass pulsed at a slightly faster rate.
¡°See?¡± Kim said, shrugging. ¡°Must have happened pretty recently... damn. I could¡¯ve helped these guys if I¡¯d been here.¡± She shook her head and started forward, her sword still dripping. ¡°We better purge this place, then. It could fester into a bigger problem if we don¡¯t.¡±
He thought back to Klaus, who had been left to fester until he grew into a hulking monster of a man. ¡°You figure there¡¯s a Lodestone near here? We could be sent pretty far back if either of us dies.¡± Well, if he died. Riley doubted Kim was in much danger.
¡°I only stayed here for a brief period in passing.¡± Kim shrugged and pressed onward, taking a moment to guide Rudolph by the reins. ¡°Didn¡¯t really take the time to look for one, figured I wouldn¡¯t need it. But... they tend to form in places with a dense concentration of people. There¡¯s bound to be one somewhere in this spot.¡±
Riley nodded, letting his gaze scan the horizon. They passed a few of the outer structures. Many of the wooden walls had been smashed inward, buried under growing clods of snow. A frozen, skeletal arm protruded from one of the mounds.
¡°Okay,¡± Riley replied. He stole a glance to the Auspex, pulsing on his hip. ¡°Then, let¡¯s see what we can find.¡±
XVII. For Our Empire
Snow crunched underfoot as the group pressed into the mining town, flanked by more buildings that had either been destroyed by combat or the elements. They found more bodies in the snow, frozen completely solid. Many of them were no longer in one piece.
The Oracles, as ever, stood a comfortable distance from the Wardens as they picked their way through the remains of the town.
¡°Back when I passed through here, they had teams of people working on keeping the place from being frozen over. Things being as bad as they are now... feels like the place must¡¯ve been overrun more than a week ago,¡± Kim noted.
¡°How many people were living here?¡±
Kim shrugged. ¡°Didn¡¯t get an exact headcount. It was a pretty active mining colony, so maybe two hundred people. That¡¯s just a rough estimate.¡±
¡°So... We could be dealing with over a hundred of those corrupted miners?¡±
¡°Likely not,¡± Iosef replied. ¡°I imagine a large part of the residents here were converted. Of those who did not escape, others would have been killed in the fighting, damaged to severely that even undeath could not put them back together. And it¡¯s likely a contingent of those corrupted have likely wandered off from here anyway, seeking to spread their vile essence to others.¡±
¡°And that¡¯s... the normal modus operandi for these things?¡± Riley asked.
¡°Usually,¡± Iosef and Arubis said in unison.
¡°Seems like it¡¯s only Rot in this region. Nothing tied to Death to raise these corpses,¡± Kim said.
Several portions of snow surrounding them suddenly exploded outward. More miners, their bodies bloated and blackened by horrid growths. Some of them still had their faces exposed, but their eyes were vacant and devoid of anything that could be considered humanity.
Riley cursed and jerked back, avoiding the earth-shattering smash of a pickaxe. His shotel swept upward, cleaving though the frozen flesh of the miner¡¯s arm and severing it at the elbow. Even losing an arm, with black blood spraying onto the snow, the poor deformed bastard barely managed a moan of pain.
Grimacing, Riley spun and cut deep into his neck, carving deep into the oily flesh. The miner thudded onto the snow with his head only partially attached.
The hatchet had been a damn fine weapon when Riley got it. A workhorse axe that had helped him immensely. But there was a world of difference between it and the shotel, he noted. This was blade built for killing, not a tool repurposed as a weapon. Granted Riley had no clue who had actually forged the thing in the first place, and doubted he wanted to know, but their craftsmanship truly was impressive.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
He raised his arms to block a swing from another miner, but the immense strength behind the pickaxe launched Riley back, his body bouncing and skidding along the snow and kicking up great white clouds on either side. Through the chaos of his own tumbling vision, he could see Kim fighting two at once, expertly batting their swings away with her blade.
Riley forced himself to one knee, his vision still shaking, as the miner moved toward him as quickly as his frozen, disfigured legs would carry him. He raised his staff, firing off a burst of Flesh-Rend that only lasted for two seconds. The miner¡¯s skin bubbled and burst, strips of skin peeling away, yet this only made him stumble briefly.
They felt pain, but the sensation was so dull that even Flesh-Rend barely got a reaction from them.
Still, that brief moment of distraction allowed him to rush in, cleaving the poor bastard¡¯s skull in two with a well-aimed chop. More oil-like blood sprayed outward, coating his sleeve in the dripping excess. Riley grimaced, but it was a mild reaction.
Inwardly, he was starting to worry about how little the gore phased him...
More frozen monstrosities emerged from the snowbank, each deformed in a unique way but all of them possessing the strange black growths of the Rot. For as strong as they were, their slowness meant that they weren¡¯t too threatening so long as Riley didn¡¯t let himself get blindsided. Each one dropped a crisp 200 Essence on death, leaving Riley with an extra thousand Essence by the time the ambush had been dealt with.
He stood in place, huffing for breath, as the blackened tumors slowly dissolved away from the freshly-deceased bodies. Kim, conversely, stood tall and confident. A few puffs of steam escaped from the thin gaps in her faceplate.
¡°You good?¡± she called.
¡°Yeah,¡± Riley replied in between huffs of breath. ¡°These people, are they still...conscious when they¡¯re possessed? Is being possessed by the Rot like being overtaken by cordyceps fungus?¡±
¡°Like what?¡± Kim asked, incredulous.
¡°It¡¯s a type of fungus back on Earth. Tends to grow on insects, turning them into ¡®zombies.¡¯¡±
Kim shrugged her broad armoured shoulders. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know, I¡¯m not much of an expert on that kind of thing. But if you¡¯re wondering if the people we killed could have been cured, don¡¯t. There isn¡¯t any known cure once the infection gets in that deep. And if you¡¯re afraid they¡¯re even aware of what¡¯s going on, well that doesn¡¯t seem to be the case. Any mind or awareness they may have had is gone... killing them is a mercy, frankly.¡±
¡°I guess that¡¯s something,¡± Riley replied. ¡°C¡¯mon. We oughta move further in.¡±
They did just that, their pace slow and measured. All was silent around them, save fir the wailing wind. The snowfall was growing slightly heavier, the cold flurries forming a pale dusting on Riley¡¯s black robes.
Eventually they reached the middle of the mining down, where a handful of the buildings were still largely in tact. A few old lanterns, still lit and casting hazy yellow light through the mist, showed the winding, carved path down toward rows of tunnels and caverns.
A Lodestone protruded from the earth, only a short distance from a snow-encrusted brass statue of a crowned knight. Riley touched the stone and took a moment to read the text engraved at the base of the statue.
¡®Our lives and our labour for our Empire.¡¯
¡°Guess the people out here were loyal, at least,¡± Riley said, taking a few steps from the Lodestone. ¡°Fat lot of good it did them... these poor people. Where to we go from here?¡±
¡°There¡¯s a lot of ground to cover. This place isn¡¯t exactly small, ya know? And at least we have a Lodestone now, as a bit of a safety net.¡± Kim hummed and scanned the snow-crusted environment, paying particular attention to any shaded regions her gaze swept across.
Riley grunted. ¡°Might be some worthwhile supplies to grab too,¡± he noted. Try as he might, he couldn''t ignore the occasional rumbles of protest in his stomach. ¡°Guess we should split up to cover more ground?¡±
Under normal circumstances, Riley would have considered splitting up to be a foolish and suicidal move to make. A bad movie cliche that would get at least one of them killed. Now, however, he found himself slightly more open to the idea. As Wardens, they were functionally immortal. Why not take the risk?
A small chuckle echoed inside Kim¡¯s helmet. ¡°Hell, works for me. You check these buildings, I¡¯ll take point in the nearest tunnel. We can probably make came in on of these buildings come nightfall anyhow.¡±
XVIII. Frozen Blood
The floorboards creaked as Riley pressed inside, the darkness seeming to wrap around him and close in behind him. It was only when they were out of the wailing wind that Mesquard emerged from his pocket, shuddering and huffing.
The weather is truly against us, Ser! The rat exclaimed.
¡°It¡¯s not ideal,¡± Riley replied, pulling his robe close. For as much as the garb of a plague wizard made him look like an edgelord villain, he would give credit where it was due to Aqar¡¯Ghul¡¯s tailors. The outer layer actively repelled moisture, preventing him from getting damp or waterlogged. And the inner layer was better at insulation than one would think at a glance.
That wasn¡¯t to say Riley didn¡¯t feel the cold, but he knew full well that things could have been much worse for him.
¡°Just stick close to me lil fella.¡±
Lil fella?! I should hope that translates to ¡®mighty warrior¡¯ where you hail from.
They went through the vacant structure, finding hints at the violence that had transpired only recently by Kim¡¯s estimation. The floorboards were marked by scars hewn into the wood, either from claws or blades, and many dried bloodstains were splashed about on a variety of flat surfaces. Crystals of frost glittered among them, like a sea of rubies.
Of the people they found, many of them had been torn to shreds or smashed into a pulp. Stray growths of black mass dotted their frozen flesh, just as dead as the bodies they were grafted to. These were either people who had been given the Rot and had been slain by their former allies, or those who had been infected but had been too close to death for the corruption to take effect.
Whatever the case, it was a gruesome sight that made Riley¡¯s stomach tighten. He wasn¡¯t totally desensitized, at least.
Many of the crates and containers inside the various buildings had either been smashed, or were devoid of much of use to start with. Though Riley was given pause when he fished out a jar of preserved white leaves.
Snowflesh Flowers
A rare breed of flowers that tend to sprout in cold, mountainous regions. This, coupled with their pale complexion, causes them to regularly blend in with any surrounding snow. Alchemists place great stock in their ability to cure poisons.
Riley stared at the description for several quiet moments. ¡°Cure poison?¡± he murmured. A strange sense of dread briefly washed over him. The thought of there being poison out there to be used against him, just another threat that could trip him up.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
A potent herb, Ser, I can nearly smell it through the glass.
Arubis hummed and stroked her chin. ¡°They seem to be expertly preserved. A single one of these flowers could purge harmful toxins from your body.¡±
¡°Good to know.¡± He slotted the jar in his inventory for later, just in case. ¡°But it looks like that¡¯s about the only useful thing here.¡±
They continued on, moving from room to room and then building to building. The scenes of carnage were distinct in each structure, but all told the same story. Eventually, entering the last building in the sequence, Riley found a pickaxe halfway lodged in the shattered floorboards. He plucked it up, grunting and huffing from the effort, and weighed it in his hands. The damn thing felt thrice as heavy as it looked.
Miner¡¯s Pick.
A tool used by miners the world over, ideal for shattering stone and plucking chunks of ore from the unyielding earth.
While it was not built with combat in mind, it can hew through flesh far easier than stone.
Riley grimaced. The might stat needed to use this were more than twice his current level. What in the world did they feed the miner¡¯s around here?
He dropped it to the ground with a dull clatter. It was way too unwieldy to be of any use to him. And he wasn¡¯t about to change his stats for a pickaxe of all things.
The snow and wind had eased off by the time Riley reemerged, and an eerie calmness had settled over the mining camp. The silence was deafening, the only sounds being the crunch of snow under Riley¡¯s boots and the thudding of his own heart.
Mesquard briefly poked his snout out. The smell of evil grows richer here, Ser. The scent of blood was strong in those shacks, but toward those tunnels... The rat briefly wrinkled his whiskered snout. It¡¯s tenfold stronger.
¡°Great...¡± Riley huffed, setting his jaw tight. He kept a comfy grip on his weapons and pressed downward. The paths just beyond the tunnels had been covered with a thick layer of salt, keeping much of the snow from gaining any foothold.
They reached the mouth of one cave. Riley leaned in for a closer listen, only barely able to see a torch flickering distantly in the carved tunnel. The noise of clashing blades and tearing flesh echoed down toward him. ¡°Guess Kim is down that way,¡± he said.
The knight likely needs no aid, Mesquard said.
Riley nodded stiffly. ¡°Plus I can¡¯t get Essence from anything she kills. Gotta keep focusing on gaining levels.¡± The miners, corrupted by the Rot as they were, had a freakish amount of strength at their disposal. But Riley knew he could handle them well enough, owing to how slow they seemed to be.
He turned from the cave mouth and continued further down the path. The auspex hitched to his hip pulsed with renewed intensity, seeming to grow more excited as he pressed deeper into the carved path. ¡°Besides, with a Lodestone nearby, it¡¯s not like either of us are at too much risk.¡±
Arubis stirred slightly behind him. He turned to glance at her, but found that his Oracle was now staring intently at the bottom of the carved spiral path.
The rocks below had been shattered and crushed, showing footprints left behind by some massive beast. At the widest point, they were much bigger than the span of Riley¡¯s shoulders. A chill suddenly raced through Riley¡¯s body. ¡°Oh. Damn.¡±
Perhaps, he thought, it was too early to get confident.
The auspex pulsed insistently, as if trying to actively get Riley''s attention. He was finally snapped to attention as he spied a shambling silhouette in the tunnel ahead of him, a misshapen parody of a human being who looked all the more monstrous from the distortion of his shadow.
Riley let out a shaky breath, reinforcing his grip on his weapons. "Right," he told himself. Whatever lay ahead of them, they still had to deal with the nearby miners and other rot-infested folks first. After that, he could choose to worry about the big bastard who had left those footprints behind.
Steeling his nerve, Riley gripped his weapons and pressed into the mouth of the tunnel.
XIX. What Once Were Human
Riley pressed toward the miner, sidestepping a harsh swing of his pickaxe. The rusted tip slammed into the cavern wall at his side, shattering a swathe of stone. His counter was swift, jamming the tip of his staff into one of the miner¡¯s eyes. He groaned and recoiled, ichorous black puss erupting down the side of his face from a cluster of burst pustules.
He seized on the opening and whipped his blade outward, shaving the miners head from his shoulders in a single stroke. He stood in place, staggering about, and then thudded lifelessly onto the ground.
Grimacing, he stepped around the outpouring blood as dark, sticky blood poured from the neck stump. ¡°This is gross every time. At least the Essence is nice.¡± He bought up his menu, checking on the amount of Essence he had accrued since leaving Myron¡¯s Pike. Barrowmen, corrupted miners, and a few unremarkable monsters who had gotten in the way on the road.
6600 Essence total. Not bad, but he wanted more.
He pressed deeper into the tunnel, guided solely by the torches that had been hewn into the wall sconces. The miners had at least been through in their safety before the tragedy befell them, each stretch of the mine decently lit and the structural supports had gone mostly untouched by the prior violence.
The tunnel opened out into an expansive cavern, where great tracts of the wall had been cleared away with a concentrated effort on the part of the miner. A few of the corrupted individuals paces back and forth, heedless of the corpses of their cohorts rotting at their feet. Most of them were the same as the other miners he had killed, but he did spy two unique figures in the group.
The first was slightly larger than the others, his face and upper arms wreathed in a network of pulsing black tumours that completely obscured what had once been his head. In his left arm he carried a makeshift cudgel of jagged stone.
The second was a miner who had a red cloak draped over his shoulders. A gemstone, like a piece of obsidian, was lodged in his forehead. He, surprisingly, carried no weapon.
Riley shrugged and raised his staff, unleashing a cloud of Blinding Mist into the chamber just as the monsters took notice of him. He rushed the nearest miner, whipping his shotel downward and cleaving the creature¡¯s face in two.
For Aqar¡¯Ghul!
Mesquard rushed from Riley¡¯s robe and darted across the foggy ground. He made for one blinded miner who was staggering Riley¡¯s way, clambered up his body, and set about biting chunks of his flesh from his throat.
Riley braced with his shotel as a pickaxe swung his way, the impact striking the smoking metal and unleashing a spray of sparks. He was shunted backward, gasping from the shock that raced up his shoulder. In that moment, a great chunk of stone whizzed his way and only narrowly missed striking him in the head.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He looked through the mist, toward the cloaked miner. Sparks of purple light pulsed from the gem in his brow, as chunks of rock were lifted from the ground at his feet.
¡°A mining wizard?¡± Riley asked in disbelief.
The miner, still half-blind, groaned and swung his pick at Rileys head. The plague wizard rolled away, wincing at the sound of stone shattering at his side. His shotel thudded into the miner¡¯s ribs, slicing clean through a bed of malformed black flesh. Another stone whizzed his way, forcing him to jump back before he could finish the miner off.
While Mesquard kept the third miner occupied, darting from point to point and gnawing on chunks of his flesh before he could be killed, Riley turned his focus to the mining wizard. His mist was already fading, the other three monsters turning their focus on Riley.
He wouldn¡¯t be able to do much while that bastard was taking potshots at him.
The other mutated miner let out a horrible groaning howl, the noise sending a tremor racing through the ground. He rushed at Riley and swung his club downward, set to crush Riley like a gnat. The wizard jumped away from the incoming club, the blow shattering a great chunk of the ground. A gale whipped outward from the point of impact, clinging Riley into the nearest wall. The blow shook him from end to end, an ache radiating through his bones.
He grunted and recovered quickly, breaking into a sprint to dodge more rocks as they hurtled his way. Riley whipped his shotel outward, slicing the head off a nearby miner as he raced toward the mining wizard. More projectiles whizzed past him, only barely missing.
Riley was only a few meters from the mining wizard, well aware that the largest of the miners was plodding toward him, when his target lifted his hands and took aim.
Darkness swirled around the cloaked figure¡¯s arms, rising up like hissing smoke. A pulse of darkness exploded from his palms, sending a great wave of power through the ground. The rocky surface exploded under Riley¡¯s feet like a landmine. He struck the ceiling, bounced off it, and rolled to a halt a modest distance from the mining wizard.
A pained groan rose in Riley¡¯s throat, echoing through his mask. ¡°Oh... fuck...¡± he groaned. He tried to rise but found his body would not obey him. White hot flashes of pain tore up through his legs, and he could faintly feel blood oozing through a myriad of cuts and wounds. He fumbled with numb, lifeless fingers, trying to grab for his shard to no avail.
¡°Shit, shit,¡± he huffed, his whole body shaking.
Thick, plodding footsteps echoed his way. The overgrown miner smacked one of his allies aside as if he were no more than an irritating speck. He raised his rocky club overhead and brought it down with a terrifying rush of speed.
DEATH.
Riley blinked, suddenly finding himself in the middle of the abandoned mining colony. A chill wind washed over him, quickly drawing him back to reality.
He sighed and shook his head. ¡°Been a while since that happened.¡± A shudder raced through his body. ¡°Nope, still not used to it...¡± A strange, chilling numbness rolled through his limbs. It took him a long time to work up the energy to move again, his body racked with anxiety. The thought of going back the way he came, facing those bastards only to die again... Riley''s feet felt like leaden weights.
¡°A person afflicted by Rot, using magic so freely. It is not entirely unheard of, but to find someone with such power in an area this remote. That¡¯s rather odd.¡± Arubis, as usual, had appeared behind him without warning. Her face was set in a look of deep contemplation, her eyebrows knit tight.
¡°And a total pain,¡± Riley said. He considered his options. He could go and get Kim¡¯s help, but now all his Essence was stuck in that overgrown bastard, and if Kim killed him... Well, levelling would take a lot more time, as he''d be starting from scratch.
And he did fully intend on catching up with her.
Riley grit his teeth and pressed on.
Keep moving forward, he told himself. That was all he could do.
XX. Spread Her Good Word
Riley found Mesquard only a short distance from the tunnel entrance. A few flakes of blood had dried around his muzzle and fur, already flaking off in places.
Are you well, ser? That was a mighty blow.
¡°No, no I am not alright,¡± Riley replied, grimacing. He took some pleasure in it being an instantaneous death. It meant he didn¡¯t have to relive the phantom sensation of his body being smashed to pulp.
Mesquard nodded. We may need a change of tactic.
They pressed on together, side by side. ¡°What do you suggest?¡± he asked, stepping over a few severed chunks of miner meat.
The rat considered this, his whiskers repeatedly twitching. Mayhaps you could trick the sorcerer into attacking his allies?
¡°He¡¯s possessed, but not totally stupid. Probably smart enough to hold his fire until he can get a clear shot on me,¡± Riley said. He took a moment to contemplate the prospect in more detail. Maybe if he could blind the guy as he was starting to shoot?
Then again, the range of his Blinding Mist was rather limited, and that cavern was pretty big. And if he got too close again, the miner was likely to explode the ground at his feet again.
He could take some punishment, but that explosion was basically an instant kill for him.
And then there was the giant miner. Incredibly strong and durable, his flesh so thick that his shotel would struggle to make a killing blow on him. But he had seemed a touch dumber than the others, singleminded in his drive to crush Riley.
Maybe he could work with that?
¡°Mesquard, you may want to keep back a bit.¡±
I am a fighter, ser.
¡°Yeah. But you can¡¯t come back from the dead like I can.¡±
A minor weakness, I assure you. He trailed off, letting out a small titter. Or, perhaps a ¡®miner¡¯ weakness in this context. Eh? Eh? I can jape as well as any man.
Riley rolled his eyes. ¡°I like you Mesquard, buy you could get seriously-¡±
A small furrow formed in the ground ahead of him, joined by two others. Riley jumped back and raised his blade as the furrows split open, revealing a trio of fist-sized holes. A creature emerged from each. Long, serpentine reptiles who skittered about on three sets of legs, their eyes letting out a golden glow than shone in the darkness.
Riley stared at the creatures. They stared at him in turn.
So, it is true, the creature at the head of the pack said, her voice low and feminine. A prophet of the Plague Mother has come to grace us. To save us from the vile filth beyond the cosmos.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!
¡°Who... what are you?¡± Riley asked.
¡°Mine lizards,¡± Arubis said, peering over his shoulder. ¡°Underground vermin, in the eyes of most miners. They dwell underground and chew on ore. Naturally, this leaves them unpopular to the people who rely on minerals for a living.¡±
¡°No doubt,¡± Riley said. They were each larger than Mesquard, who was already big by rat standards. The biggest of the pack had a body longer than his forearm, and about as thick.
Under normal circumstances I would be wary about siding with such creatures. But we are allied in common cause, as children of Aqar¡¯Ghul, Mesquard said.
Agreed. My kin have no love for humans, but beasts of Chaos are worse by a massive margin, the reptile said.
Riley nodded. On some fundamental level, it seemed everything living had a disdain for the creatures of Chaos. ¡°Call me Riley,¡± he said, crouching to get closer to the trio.
I am Zic. These two are my hatchlings, Ozo and Tez, the head reptile replied. Her forked tongue darted briefly out of her mouth. We heard the chaos of your approach and made our way over. Alone we are not strong enough to defeat the spores of evil. But, with your aid, we stand a chance.
Riley frowned behind his mask. ¡°Have you three ever fought before? Or killed?¡±
One of the mine lizards, who Riley believed was Ozo, stepped forward. I have eaten human eyes before.
The third mine lizard nodded. And I tore the throat from a man. We may me small, noble prophet, but we are mighty. Our talons and fangs rend flesh as well as any blade.
¡°Mm. Good enough for me,¡± Riley said. It wasn¡¯t like he was in a position to e too picky.
Speak, and we shall act, Zic said, offering him some semblance of a bow.
Riley took a moment to explain the situation to the group, the cavern that waited ahead of them. He may have killed a few of the miners, but the biggest threats were still in there. And one stray move could get them all killed.
¡°And that¡¯s about the short of it. My plan is a simple one. I¡¯ll rush in and draw their attention. All of them. Ideally I can kill the big guy on my own. But, while they¡¯re all on me, I want you four to sneak around and make for the rear of the cavern. Attack the wizard and keep him off balance, and I can get in close and kill him.¡±
A risky plan, Zic said.
An audacious attack. As to be expected from a brave warrior, Mesquard added.
¡°It¡¯s a major risk, I¡¯m not gonna sugarcoat it, but it¡¯s the kind of risk we need to take.¡± Riley moved to stand, adjusting his grip on his shotel and staff. ¡°Well, that I need to take at least. But you¡¯re very welcome to help me clear the path ahead.¡±
Zic conferred with her two hatchlings, speaking in soft, hushes toned that he could scarcely pick up on. Eventually the trio returned their attention to him, watching quietly with their slitted serpentine eyes. Our aid is yours, Zic eventually said.
Yes. Better to risk death in a noble battle, than to perish slowly as our kin have until this point. This is our only chance for victory, Tez said.
¡°Then we¡¯re all in agreement. Stick close to me, and we¡¯ll get through this.¡± And he had to hope he could get them through the other side alive. His life as a medical student was long gone, but there was a tiny part of him that still wanted to preserve life. At least, to preserve the life of those who weren¡¯t actively out to kill him.
He took his first steps forward, and the three lizards quickly fell in step behind him. Mesquard perched himself on Riley¡¯s shoulder again, his whiskers twitching.
¡°You¡¯ve certainly drawn a modest crowd of allies,¡± Arubis said, smiling fondly.
¡°Guess this passive skill is pretty good,¡± he mused. In the back of his mind, Riley was briefly worried with the mental image of being swarmed by crowds of angry, infectious rodents, unable to mollify them with any passive ability. People may have hated plague wizards, and the goddess who gave them their power, but at least they weren¡¯t trying to tear him limb from limb.
Yet.
¡°So... it¡¯s anything that¡¯s classed as vermin?¡± he asked.
Arubis nodded. ¡°Aqar¡¯Ghul is the patron of the wretched, the disenfranchised, and the spurned. But, certainly, things that are considered ¡®plague carriers¡¯ are those closest to the order of the plague wizards. Rats, locusts, vermin, carrion birds. Things of that nature.¡±
¡°Dirty company.¡± Not that he was in a position to be too judgemental, when he was a walking sick ward. But it was important to remind himself over how bizarre his life had gotten.
Dirtiness is next to godliness, said Mesquard, seeming to grin as best a rat could.
¡°Yes. Quite right,¡± Riley flatly said.
To bring disease and woe is to honour the great matron of filth, Ozo proudly said. Today we are all priests in her service. Thus let us spread her good word.
XXI. Bolstering Stone
All was silent as Riley stepped into the cavern, still rife with the corpses and battle damage that had been kicked up from his last visit. The remaining infected miners turned slowly, drawn by the soft sound of gravel shifting beneath the soles of his boots.
He stood alone. Even Arubis had hung back to give him space. He wanted nothing else to draw their attention.
¡°Alright you lot,¡± Riley said. ¡°I was training to be a doctor, not too long ago. Before all of this happened. Before I got died and got sent to this medieval hell.¡±
The miners turned and started to shuffle toward him. The hulking beast, with his makeshift club of blood-smeared stone, began to move last. The ground shook at his every step, dislodging scree from the ceiling. Riley tried not to dwell on the obscene smear dripping from the club. His own lifeblood, reduced to a drying stain.
¡°Back home, there¡¯s one tenet that¡¯s sacred in medical institutions across the world. The Hippocratic Oath. Do no harm. Unfortunately, I¡¯m past the point where I can preserve the sanctity of life. Here and now, I need to defend myself.¡± He started circling the group, drawing their attention from the mouth of the cavern. ¡°And everything I leaned about healing people? Not much good to me, as a result. But...¡±
He lifted his staff, the obsidian tip glittering in the lantern light of the cavern. ¡°I can still help people in other ways. This... ¡®Rot¡¯, whatever it is. It¡¯s made monsters out of you. A virulent infection for which there is no known cure. But I know no sane man would want to live like this. So I¡¯ll offer you all the closest thing to a cure.¡±
He narrowed his eyes behind his mask.
¡°I¡¯ll give you the cure of death.¡±
A cloud of Choking Haze flew from his staff as the nearest two miners lurched his way. They doubled over, puking clots of blood and bile. Riley¡¯s shotel thudded into the neck of the nearest one, severing a chunk of it, while the other steeled himself and swung.
Riley blocked as best he could with his staff, but the thud of the impact shook up to hos shoulders and knocked his back into the cavern wall. He grunted, pain shooting through his spine, but he righted himself quickly.
He rolled away as another swing came his way, the tip of the miner¡¯s pick slamming into the wall and rending a swathe from the earth. The first of the miners fell to the earth, blood bubbling from his neck, until he finally went still and died.
¡°Come on,¡± Riley huffed beneath his mask.
He avoided another swing, well aware of the towering monster thudding toward him. In the corner of his eye he could just barely see the mining wizard taking aim, the air smoking around his palms. But he could also see small shadows skittering on the edge of the cavern, rapidly drawing toward him. Riley smirked.
His shotel swung down, splitting the skull of the nearest miner and sending him sprawling to the dirt. Now it was just Riley, the big guy, and the wizard.
The giant swung his club toward Riley, who deftly jumped away from it. But the impact still smashed a great chunk of the ground away, and the pressure behind the blow sent Riley stumbling and skidding away.
His staff hummed as he channelled Flesh-Rend through it, immediately sending waves of pain and pressure through Riley¡¯s body. The unseen plague was directed at the giant¡¯s legs, causing the skin to bubble and split and burst, rivulets of blood seeming from a myriad of melting wounds. The giant groaned, nearly losing his balance, and swung wildly at Riley who stood just at the edge of his range.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Another pained groan echoed through the cavern. Riley turned, now watching as Mesquard and the three lizards had found purchase on the mining wizard¡¯s body. Two tore chunks from his neck, the third lizard relentlessly clawing at his eyeball, while Mesquard¡¯s claws were scraping swathes of skin from his brow.
Riley wanted to smile. One less thing to worry about.
With the exertion reaching a fever pitch in his body, he turned his aim to the giant¡¯s club hand. Raw scabs and welts erupted along the giant¡¯s wrist, bleeding profusely, pustules that even the Rot could not ignore.
Riley exhaled, the pain too much for himto keep the spell up. But it had had the desired effect. The giant lurched, barely able to stand on his ravished legs, while his arm trembled as he tried to raise his rocky weapon again.
Riley mustered his energy and dashed forward, narrowly avoiding a swing from the mutant¡¯s undamaged arm. His shotel swatted across the bloodied left knee of the beast, spraying rotten blood onto the ground. The giant swayed, nearly toppling over, and collapsed with a shuddering thud as Riley struck the second knee.
The overgrown miner swung wildly with his other hand as he toppled, backhanding Riley away. The blow flung Riley off his feet and knocked all the air from his lungs. He landed harshly on the ground, wincing and shuddering. From where he lay he could see his verminous allies were still hard at work. One of the lizards had been dashed by a flying rock, but those who remained had left the wizard¡¯s face and neck a bloodied ruin.
Riley reached down with a trembling hand and gripped the Shard on his belt. Vitality suddenly raced through his body, dulling his aches and exhaustion. He rose to his feet, pain swiftly fading from him, while the giant struggled to pull himself up.
His head was low enough for Riley¡¯s blade to reach, and he doubted he would get another golden opportunity like this any time soon.
Steeling himself, Riley charged forward and swung. He cut through a great pustule on the top of his head, rotten fluids spraying outward, and struck the bone below. His skull was harder than steel, the impact sending a shudder through Riley¡¯s arm.
¡°Damn!¡± he hissed, jerking back as the giant groped blindly for him. ¡°Even the shotel can¡¯t cut through there? Fine, how about this?!¡±
He swung his shotel down in an arc and thwacked it into the giant¡¯s throat. Then did so again and again, the leathery hide of his neck gradually splitting and breaking against the smoky black metal. Riley felt as if he was trying to chop down an oak tree with a butter knife. It gave way, bit by bit, until the gushing stump heralded his head lolling away from his shoulders.
The mining wizard had fallen to the earth, his face drenched in an unholy amount of blood. Riley ignored the ache in his swordarm and advanced on the prone figure. He rammed the butt of his staff down, shattering his skull like an eggshell.
Between that kill, and the death of the giant, Riley felt a potent surge of Essence race through his body.
Tez has fallen, noble priest. Riley watched as Zic made her way around the corpse, blood dripping down her fanged jaws.
¡°Sorry for your loss.¡±
Mourne not. My hatchling, who I loved dearly, perished slaying a vile enemy of the mother goddess. Nought could bring me more pride.
¡°Well... glad to hear it,¡± Riley murmured.
Mesquard made his way over. He spat a chunk of scalp onto the ground. Wretched taste, he uttered.
¡°I¡¯d imagine so, yeah,¡± Riley admitted, grimacing at the thought of putting his mouth anywhere near such a thing. ¡°You sure biting those guys is safe? You won¡¯t catch the Rot too?¡±
Mesquard shook his head. Rot is born from a miasma, noble emissary. To breathe that in is to welcome it into your flesh. So long as we do not breathe it, we are safe.
Riley grimaced.
Noble priest, Zic said, clawing at a furrow in the cavern wall. The packed dirt fell away, revealing a hollow housing a sparkling obsidian mineral. As payment for your aid, take this. It would have made a fine meal, but for you... you will make better use of it.
Curiously, Riley reached down and lift the chunk into his hand. He turned the spiky mass from side to side before checking it in his Inventory.
Bolstering Stone
A rare form of mineral, pulled from the shadows of the earth. Said to be imbued with the power of the god Rohll, lord of soil and stone, who sculpted the landscape and filled it with a myriad of mythic metals.
Used to upgrade weapons and armour when given to a talented smith.
Riley turned his gaze from the stone to his gear, and he found himself smiling. ¡°Happy to help, Zic.¡± It was good to do good, he told himself.
XXII. A Lesser Avatar
Vitality 14
Capacity 15
Fortitude 8
Nimbleness 17
Might 8
Wisdom 24
Awareness 10
Riley inspected his stats, humming behind the confines of his mask. He had found a few more miners lurking deep within the cavern, after dealing with that brief roadblock, and by the time he had finished he had managed to accrue a rather large stockpile of Essence. Enough to raise a few stats across the board.
The amount he needed to increase his levels was rising gradually and by degrees. Soon he¡¯d need to start killing bigger fish if he wanted to be able to level up efficiently.
A worrying prospect, but already Riley could feel newfound power welling in his body. If he were to fight Klaus now, he was reasonably sure he could win that fight and only die once, if even.
From a chest at the very end of the cavern, he retrieved two more bits of plunder. The first was a long black coat with a breastplate and a fur-lined collar. The armour rating was higher than that of his current robes, and he didn¡¯t need to bolster any of his stats to use it.
Inquisitor¡¯s Jacket.
An armoured jacket, worn inquisitors loyal to the Imperial Cathedral. Designed for practicality, with resistance to the elements and weaponry alike.
Inquisitor¡¯s roam imperial territory far and wide, and are often tasked with sniffing out Chaos and destroying it before it can take root. They are not always successful in this, but inquisitors always choose death before surrender.
The second piece of plunder he found was a scroll, covered from one end to the other with alien writing. Even as it was translated before his very eyes, the contents of the scroll made little sense to him on its own. As before, he checked it in his Inventory.
Spikes
Earthen wizardry tied to Rohll, lord of stone and soil. Shifts the ground to generate explosions of shrapnel a short distance from the caster.
As the tendrils of Chaos grew vast and deep, the Empire dispatched mining wizards to pull rare minerals from the ground to fuel the war effort. These individuals were not immune to corruption.
¡°Would you like to learn this sorcery?¡± Arubis asked from over his shoulder.
Riley blinked a few times. ¡°Really? I can learn magic other than plague stuff?¡±
Arubis nodded. ¡°Plague wizardry will be far stronger than any magic you absorb. But, provided you have the aptitude, I can impart the power of any scroll into thine mind. For a pittance of Essence. Unlike plague magic, which you can absorb for free if your body has the aptitude.¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Riley swallowed hard. He had little over a thousand left, after his levelling splurge. But he was glad to take any chances he could get. He checked Spikes in the Inventory again, and found no indication that his stats were off. ¡°Okay,¡± he said. ¡°I¡¯ll take it.¡±
Arubis nodded and waved her hand. Golden light trailed after her palm, arcane runes shimmering in the light. The scroll, in an instant, dissolved into vapour that was promptly sucked into Riley¡¯s body. He had a flat two hundred Essence left now.
He rose up and moved from the chest and gripped his staff. He focued on Spikes and swept his staff forward, kicking up a small explosion of stone just a few paces in front of him. The rocky shrapnel pinged off the tunnel walls, carving chunks from the surface.
He frowned. It wasn¡¯t a particularly strong spell, but it was a more directly offensive option than his first two, and the strain of casting it was mild at worst. He could make use of it. Most importantly, he told himself, he needed to keep an eye out for any other scrolls he could make use of.
¡°Thanks, Arubis.¡±
She smiled warmly at him. ¡°I live to serve.¡±
A sudden tremor shook the ground, causing Riley to sharply whip around. A wall to the far side of the chamber began to crack and crumble, and then collapsed outward from a sudden shove of force. The dust parted, revealing Kim with one hand outstretched. Scarlet light shimmered from her palm and faded just a quickly.
¡°Oh, there you are!¡± Riley could almost hear her smile behind her helmet. ¡°Fancy that. I only noticed this wall was kind of flimsy and figured I¡¯d bust through, in case there was any treasure behind it. Looks like you beat me to it. Sick threads, by the way.¡±
¡°You... know magic?¡± he asked.
She shrugged her armoured shoulders. ¡°It¡¯s only a basic Impact spell. Short range concussive force. Has its uses but, generally,¡± she motioned to the blood dripping from her claymore, ¡°I prefer sticking to my sword.¡±
Riley nodded stiffly. ¡°Seems you¡¯ve picked up some handy tricks.¡±
¡°Like I said, it¡¯s basic. Picked it up not too long after I started. But, hey, seems you¡¯re already learning important lessons of plundering any chest you see. Only...¡±
¡°Only...?¡±
¡°Well, since you¡¯re so cavalier about it I guess you haven¡¯t had anything nasty happen to ya so far. So, as a general rule, be careful when you open chests. Give ¡®em a good poke with your blade to see if there¡¯s any reaction. And lift the lid good and slow. Just in case there¡¯s a tripwire of any kind on the inside.¡±
¡°Why... should I poke it with my sword?¡±
¡°In case it comes alive. Duh.¡± Kim turned on her heel and motioned for the others to follow. ¡°Well, come on. I think I¡¯ve found a route to the lowest levels of the mines.¡±
Riley obliged, stiffly tailing her. He''d rather not stop to imagine what a ''living treasure chest'' would look like. ¡°Any idea what we¡¯re looking for?¡±
¡°Probably just some patient zero. A guy who got crippled with Rot, growing larger and viler with the passage of time.¡±
They ventured deeper inside, following the winding tracts of carved tunnels into the bowels of the mine. The pathway grew larger, more jagged, and it seemed clear that parts had been excavated by something far more savage than a mere mining operation.
The Auspex on Riley¡¯s belt began to pulse. Gently, at first, and then with greater insistence as they plumbed the lower depths. Oily tar seeped from the ceiling and smeared along the walls. Riley couldn¡¯t smell much through the herbs that had been stuffed into his mask¡¯s beak, but he could almost feel the rank miasma that permeated their surroundings.
¡°Damn,¡± Kim said, gripping her sword tighter. ¡°Corruption is really taking root around here.¡±
Riley frowned to himself, sparing a stray glance to his Auspex. The pulsing was growing more and more pronounced. ¡°This... seems more serious than just some random monster?¡±
¡°It might be,¡± Kim reluctantly admitted.
The tunnel abruptly opened out into a massive chamber, the walls of which had been thoroughly excavated. Swathes of stone had been meted away, reduced to rotting sludge by spews of feculent black slime.
Kim froze as her gaze fell upon the hulking figure at the center of the room, who had surrounded himself with the frozen corpses of several miners. What stood before them was not human or living in any way. He was a mass of stone and soil with pseudo-limbs of granite, held together by lashings of pulsating black ooze. It knuckled about, like a gorilla, a great tentacle-shaped ¡®head¡¯ whipping around to stare at the to Wardens.
¡°Holy shit,¡± Kim hissed, drawing her blade in a flash. ¡°Riley, get your ass in gear and run!¡±
She inched back, nearly dragging Riley with her. ¡°W-what is it?!¡±
The great beast turned and started pounding their way, shaking the cavern with every step.
¡°A lesser avatar!¡±
XXIII. Death Is Never Defeated
The two were forced to jump as a colossal granite fist swung down at them, punching a great crater in the ground. Riley raised his staff, only to pause. This creature, this ¡®lesser avatar¡¯, didn¡¯t have any flesh in the conventional sense. Would any plague magic even work?
Kim thrust a hand out, her wave of Impact slamming into its knee. Chunks of scree fell loose, but it only barely wobbled. It swung toward her, a spray of smoking black matter spraying from an arm. She rolled away from it, and the falling slop proceeded to melt deep into the rocky ground.
Riley inched back, sparing a glance to his shotel. That wouldn¡¯t do him much good against solid rock either. He focused on the tar-like sinews that held the creature together.
That was the organism, he told himself. A creature that had managed to cobble together a makeshift body of fallen rock. That was what had to be struck... if he could get close without being turned into a smear.
He watched as Kim dodged around another swing, avoiding a spray of rocky shrapnel. ¡°What¡¯s a lesser avatar?!¡± he called. Riley aimed with his staff, focusing on a ¡®knee¡¯ of the beast and firing off Spikes. A chunk of the creature exploded, shards of stone slicing into the oily tendrils that surrounded the creature¡¯s stony mass. It wobbled, again, but kept upright.
¡°Piles of pure, raw, Rot that have grown large enough to be sentient without a human host.¡± Kim ran and skidded between the avatar¡¯s legs, her claymore stroking a gooey tendril and cleaving it open in passing. She halted by the mouth of the cave, grabbed Riley¡¯s shoulder, and took to sprinting with him. ¡°They grow further outward, forging bodies for themselves out of whatever they have to hand.¡±
Already he could hear the creature thundering after them, pounding and scraping, the savagery of his movements shaking the tunnel and widening it further.
¡°It¡¯s... it¡¯s scary, I¡¯ll admit that much!¡± Riley said, struggling to keep pace with the taller woman. ¡°But why are you so freaked out? If it kills us, we can just respawn!¡±
She looked at him, and he could see the wild panic in her eyes. ¡°It¡¯s not that easy. Not against things that have this much Chaos presence inside their body!¡±
¡°What do you mean?¡±
¡°I.... I¡¯ll explain later!¡±
Mesquard popped his head from the pocket of Riley¡¯s flowing coat and glanced backward. The rat twitched nervously, watching the hulking mass gradually draw toward them. What an abomination!
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They wound past the corridors and caverns Kim had previously come through. She had cut down a modest horde or mutated miners, leaving them severed and discarded across the rocky ground. In the chaos, Riley could even see one room where Kim had singlehandedly bested three of the particularly giant miners.
Moonlight and swirling snow winds greeted them as they burst back into the open. Kim spun, aimed her free hand at the top of the cavern entrance, and held her palm aloft until her whole body adopted a haze of ruby light. This time when she fired Impact, it seemed to come out with tenfold force. It cleaved a great chunk from the roof of the cavern and sent it tumbling down, a cascade of debris crashing onto the lesser avatar. It shrieked, a horrible and piercing noise, but soon the clog of scree made it vanish from sight.
Kim sagged, balancing her weight on her sword. ¡°Hits like a mule¡¯s kick,¡± she huffed, clouds of steam flowing from the faceplate of her helm.
The two Oracles, in their usual way, reappeared from thin air. ¡°Are you well?¡± Iosef asked.
¡°Just need to catch my breath,¡± Kim replied, slowly rising upright. Already the makeshift blockade was stirring, smaller pieces of debris tumbling down to the ground. ¡°That won¡¯t hold for long. Come on, we¡¯re pulling back.¡±
She turned and started marching back to the remnants of the mining town. Riley hesitated but ultimately fell in behind her. ¡°I thought cutting out Chaos was our whole... job?¡±
¡°Gotta know when to fold ¡®em. You and me? We¡¯re not at a level to take down something like that. Needs a stronger, better equipped kind of Warden.¡±
Riley drowned under his mask. A soft thudding sound, gradually increasing in volume, echoed up their way. ¡°Dying sucks, I¡¯ll admit, but what¡¯s so different about getting killed by a lesser avatar as opposed to a random miner?¡±
Kim sighed and shook her head. ¡°Wardens can respawn almost indefinitely. Almost. But when you die, there¡¯s a moment where your soul is naked and exposed. If you get killed by a random monster, or by a steep fall, it¡¯s no big deal. But if you die in the presence of Chaos.¡± She shuddered, her blade trembling in her grasp. ¡°There¡¯s this... moment. An instant where Chaos can reach out to your soul. And it seizes on that opportunity.¡±
¡°Kimberly-¡± Iosef said, worry rising in his voice.
¡°He needs to know, Iosef. Deserves to know the shit the Arbiter keeps to himself.¡± They crunched across the snow. Rudolph whickered from his makeshift shelter. ¡°Chaos can beat a Warden in two ways. The first is... when he goes for your soul, and scours it with this crushing sense of fear and futility. Breaks your will bit by bit, until your soul dissolves. Unwilling to respawn.¡±
A shudder raced down Riley¡¯s body. He froze in place, gazing at Kim in wide-eyed horror. ¡°And... the second way?¡±
Kim hesitated. Somewhere behind them, great chunks of rock were flung loose, clattering noisily from their moorings. ¡°There are those... who end up taking the power of Chaos into their bosom. They become champions of it.¡±
She hoisted herself into Rudolph¡¯s saddle. Riley, once the shock wore off, was pulled up behind her. The Oracles vanished again, well aware there was no room for them.
¡°Brainwashing?¡± he asked.
¡°Worse than that. On some level, you come willingly.¡±
A horrible howl echoed their way from the mines, more chunk of rock being chucked about. Kim spurred her horse into motion, and the white steed set off at a speedy gallop. Committing celestial suicide, or being corrupted into working for Chaos... that was what he had to look forward to? Riley felt his heart seize in his chest. What had he done to deserve being put into this situation?
¡°Keep close to me,¡± Kim said. ¡°We¡¯re gonna haul ass and leave that thing eating our dust!¡±
¡°Don¡¯t have to tell me twice,¡± Riley murmured. He dared to glance over his shoulder, watching as the remains of the mining colony became increasingly shrouded in a cloud of frozen mist. Yet the creature was out there. He could almost sense it.
The Auspex pulsed on his belt. Slowly, gently. A continuous warning of what was out there.
XXIV. Hangmans Gaol
They rode throughout the night, and through much of the early morning, pausing only occasionally to water Rudolph or let the horse catch his breath. He was built strong, far stronger than any earth horse according to Kim, but he still needed to breathe.
Riley could not stop thinking about what Kim had said to him. The threat that loomed over every Warden. A few bad choices, dying to the wrong thing one time too many, and you were a goner? Now his life was back to feeling fragile again, just as he was starting to grasp the idea of being immortal.
As they went along, the frost and snow began to steadily fade. They entered lowlands filled with grassy planes, upon which they could see the terrain of Vergoll in greater clarity. Distant forests filled with colossal pine trees, distant townships and logging camps.
And, further afield, he got his first look at the capital.
¡°Prospera,¡± Kim had said, motioning to the distant city. ¡°Capital of the Vergoll Empire for... nigh on four centuries, I think. Said to be one of the biggest cities in all the world. One of the few to survive Chaos, and its forces, after all this time.¡±
Riley stared at it. At the colossal black walls that ringed it. At the great silvery spires and crenelations that rose from the largest of the imperial buildings. At the broad river than ran through the heart of the city, seeming to bisect it near in two.
It wasn¡¯t on fire, which was nice.
They set off again, finding lower ground. And Kim, much to Riley¡¯s surprise, started wheeling Rudolph toward a walled fort that sat a modest distance from the road.
¡°What¡¯s this?¡± Riley warily asked. ¡°We doing more plundering?¡±
¡°Not if you want to keep your hands attached at the wrist,¡± Kim said, a chuckle echoing in her helm. ¡°This is a little spot known as Hangman¡¯s Gaol. It was a remote prison, years and years ago. Nowadays its one of many... I guess you could call ¡®em ¡®safehouses¡¯ that get used by Wardens. Hey, the Vergoll Empire wasn¡¯t using it.¡±
¡°It¡¯s safe?¡±
Kim shrugged. ¡°Oughta be. There were a few Wardens relaxing there when I started heading up the mountain, and some of them are probably hanging around there.¡±
Sure enough, as Rudolph trotted closer to the looming walls of the fortress, a figure emerged along the battlements. A woman, by Riley¡¯s estimation, with a shaggy mane of grey hair and a wrinkled face. Se was adorned in bronze-hued plate armour.
¡°Who goes there?¡± she called.
¡°Who do you think, dumbass?¡±
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The older woman snorted. ¡°Kim, huh?¡± she asked. ¡°Found yourself a stray.¡±
¡°Sure did. This is Riley. Got picked up by the Arbiter only a short while ago.¡±
¡°Alrlight, alright. Gimme a sec and I¡¯ll fetch the gate.¡±
They sat idly on Rudolph, the beast snorting and sniffing at the grass, while the older woman vanished down a flight of steps. ¡°That¡¯s Beth,¡± Kim said. ¡°She was a long haul trucker before some drunken bastard crashed into her an¡¯ killed her. Now she¡¯s a Forest Sentinel.¡±
Riley cocked his head. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± he asked.
Kim hummed in thought. ¡°It¡¯s like... a barbarian. She¡¯s real good with axes, real good at melee. Has some spells for earth and wood magic.¡±
The great gate raised up, bit by bit, each movement unleashing small sprays of dust and mortar from on high. Beth stood on the other side, and spent a few moments inspecting Riley as they rode through. ¡°Shoot, a plague wizard? Damn poor choice of class. You won¡¯t find many friends with the local rubes.¡±
¡°So I¡¯ve found,¡± Riley admitted. ¡°Not that I had any way of knowing, when I picked the class. And besides, the other class choices were trashy.¡±
Beth snorted. ¡°Yeah. That creepy prick seems to always put some weird options in there. Better head on in. Kenji was brewing some green tea, last I heard.¡±
¡°Yeah, I could do with a drink. Say uh...¡± Kim tugged the reins, shifting in her saddle. ¡°Is Stark back in yet?¡±
¡°Came back just the other day. Didn¡¯t seem happy with whatever he found.¡±
¡°He rarely is.¡±
They hitched Rudolph in a stable a short jaunt from the gate. Riley noticed a handful of steeds milling about, all of them seeming to be of a decent size and build.
Riley dismounted, grunting and fighting to regain the feeling in his legs. Horse riding, he decided, was not his forte. Mesquard emerged from his coat and scurried onto his shoulder. So, here we are. A place of safety and respite.
¡°For now,¡± said Riley. He glanced to Kim. ¡°Who¡¯s Stark?¡±
¡°He¡¯s like...¡± Kim removed her helmet and promptly shook her blonde locks loose. ¡°I guess you could call him my mentor. A guy who might be one of the oldest Wardens I know. He¡¯s been in the game for years at this point,¡± she said.
¡°Years, huh?¡± Riley asked. He had to wonder how strong a person could get if they spent years accruing Essence and loot in a place like this?
The interior of the former gaol was drafty and grey, as could perhaps be expected of such a place. The new residents had tried to decorate as best they could, hanging tapestries and paintings in some of the chambers, but that could not disguise what the place had once been. The rows of cells had had the bars removed, some of them serving as bedrooms or refurbished into libraries.
Another room had been made into an armoury of sorts, which Riley only caught a fleeting glimpse of in passing. The interior housed a myriad of swords, axes, and pikes. None of them seemed particularly fancy, compared to what Riley and Kim had armed themselves with. If he had to guess, he assumed they were backup weapons in case anyone lost their gear and needed a replacement.
Though he did wonder, briefly, if they had a blacksmith somewhere in the fortress.
Deeper inside they found a larger room, illuminated by the crackling roar of a fireplace. A young Asian man, adorned in sleek silvery armour and a green cloak, sat at the table, sipping tea that had been poured from an ornate teapot. He looked up, blinking at Kim behind his swept fringe. ¡°Back sooner than I thought.¡± He turned in his seat, revealing the spiked gauntlets resting in his lap.
¡°Hey Ken,¡± she said, resting her blade against the wall. ¡°Things got a tad hectic.¡±
Riley removed his mask, tucking it into one of the pockets of his robe. ¡°That¡¯s one word for it. Nice to meet you, I¡¯m Riley,¡± he greeted, brushing his russet hair loose.
Kenji smiled and reached over to shake his head. ¡°Good to see some new blood around here,¡± he said, speaking with a mild accent. ¡°Shame you had to meet Kim first. I imagine she dragged you into trouble. And likely very nearly got you killed... again.¡±
¡°Very funny, smartass.¡± Kim snatched up the teapot and poured some tea into a nearby pewter cup.
Riley reached over and took his offered hand, giving it a quick shake. ¡°Well. I¡¯ve had worse days,¡± he said, nodding.
¡°Ha. The worst is yet to come, I¡¯m afraid. Welcome to our little social club. I hope you enjoy your stint here.¡±
XXV. Meeting Stark
The group convened for tea, and Riley found himself seated nearest to the fireplace. After so long spent in a frozen wasteland, huddled by campfires in the dead of night, it was nice to have genuine warmth to hand.
The tea was a nice touch too. It perhaps wasn¡¯t green tea as he knew it, back on earth, but the local brew had a sweet and pleasant aroma to it.
¡°So, a plague wizard,¡± Kenji said, looking to the beak poking from Riley¡¯s pocket. ¡°I have had the displeasure of fighting men from that order in the past. They are... potent. I imagine, in time, your abilities will be dangerous too.¡±
Riley shrugged. ¡°Gonna take some time, I guess. But that¡¯s probably the case for most people, right? So, what class did you get?¡± he asked.
Smirking, Kenji lifted his gauntlets from his lap and tossed them onto the table with a clatter. The spiked knuckles glimmered in the light. ¡°My choices were... interesting. In my old life, I was a practitioner of parkour. I suppose that influenced me getting the class of a ¡®lightning monk.¡¯¡±
¡°Which is?¡±
An impish, cryptic smile appeared on Kenji¡¯s face. ¡°A class said to be built for swift, agile attacks, with a peppering of lightning magic. I believe the term would be ¡®glass cannon¡¯ in most games.¡± He pushed himself away from the table as he spoke. ¡°I¡¯ll give you a quick demonstration.¡±
Riley watched, transfixed, as sparks of white lightning briefly danced from Kenji¡¯s eyes, forming into a halo of electricity. He rose up fully. In the blink of an eye he zipped from one end of the room to the other, crackling with energy. Then he did so again and again, each burst of speed filling the air with a blinding flash.
He skidded to a stop after five ¡®jumps¡¯, beads of perspiration dotting along his brow. He huffed, a grin fully forming on his face. ¡°A nice trick, wouldn¡¯t you say?¡±
¡°He likes to show off,¡± Kim said, snorting and quaffing a mouthful of tea.
¡°With a power like that, I can¡¯t say I blame him. I¡¯d show off too if I could do hat stuff,¡± he said.
Draining the last of her tea, Kim rocked back on her chair and spared a glance to Kenji. ¡°I¡¯m hoping to see the old man. He in the middle of anything?¡±
¡°Stark?¡± He stood upright, any tiredness in his body swiftly fading. ¡°He went to store some gear, but he should be free.¡±
¡°Thanks for the tea. C¡¯mon Riley.¡±
¡°It was nice to meet you Kenji,¡± Riley said, nodding firmly to the slender young man.
¡°And you too, Riley. I wish you luck in the days to come.¡±
Kim led the way from the meeting room at a steady pace, armoured heels clicking with every step. She made her way up a winding staircase, leading up into one of the large towers on the side of the Gaol. ¡°Didn¡¯t see Kenji¡¯s Oracle there,¡± Riley mused.
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¡°Oracles tend to fade out whenever Wardens are chatting. Or, well, whenever they¡¯re not being called upon for levelling someone. Hell, the older Wardens who are so full of levels and can barely level up unless they kill a bunch of strong enemies, you almost never see their Oracles.¡±
Riley frowned. He didn¡¯t consider Arubis his best friend forever, or anything, but he liked her well enough. She was one of the few friendly faces he had out here. And it would be a damn sad thing if she vanished from his life entirely.
Another question briefly popped into his head. ¡°What do you suppose Oracles actually... are?¡±
¡°Hm?¡± Kim spared him a brief look. ¡°They don¡¯t really talk much about their true nature. And asking them questions never gets you much. Me personally, I think they¡¯re like... angels.¡±
¡°Angels?¡± Riley asked.
¡°Yeah. If the Arbiter is like ¡®God¡¯, or at least the closest equivalent, then the Oracles act like angels do. His servants who handle a lot of his daily affairs.¡±
¡°I guess that makes sense. You ever uh... see the Arbiter again? After the first time?¡±
Kim shook her head, her expression growing grim. ¡°Not even once.¡±
The spiral staircase ended before a sturdy oaken door. Kim rapped upon it, the noise echoing off the stony walls. Silence blossomed in the tower, in which the air sighed and whistled through the ancient walls of the gaol.
¡°It¡¯s unlocked,¡± a gruff voice spoke from beyond the door.
The two Wardens entered, finding themselves inside a sparsely decorated bedroom. An orange flame crackled in the hearth on one side of the chamber, illuminating a looming armoured figure. He stood dressed in a suit of crimson plate armour, distinguished by what appeared to e a network of pipes and lines that linked the back to the limbs. His face was old and wrinkled, a great grey beard flowing to his collarbone.
¡°Hey, Stark,¡± Kim greeted, a strange note of deference in her voice.
¡°Kimberly.¡± The old man turned, regarding her with steely blue eyes. ¡°Didn¡¯t get to see you before you made for the mountains. And it seems we have another Warden in the great game.¡±
Riley snorted and slowly made his way into the room, once more embracing the warmth of a crackling flame. ¡°I guess that¡¯s one word for it. I¡¯m Riley Blake.¡±
¡°Welcome to one of our little boltholes, then. I should say we¡¯re not a united front, like the Band of Brotherhood. More of a... loose coalition of cooperators who want to make life in Kerberos a little less awful. You can call us the Strays¡±
¡°Thanks. I uh, appreciate any help I can get.¡± ¡®Strays¡¯ wasn¡¯t exactly a badass moniker for the group, but Riley wasn¡¯t feeling too judgemental. And he wasn¡¯t about to crack wise in front of Stark. He didn¡¯t need to be able to see the old man¡¯s stats to know he must have been some kind of beast when it came to raw power, and his expression reminded Riley of an old hardass college lecturer he¡¯d had to suffer under.
Kim cleared her throat. ¡°It¡¯s... good to see you again, Stark, but I had a reason for coming back here.¡±
¡°Figured as much. You usually spent weeks at a time on your own these days. Wouldn¡¯t come back unless it was for something major.¡±
¡°Yeah.¡± She hesitated, worry flashing across her face. ¡°I... we... encountered a lesser avatar out that way, forced us to retreat. It was in a town called Orespeak. It¡¯s been wiped off the map.¡±
Stark¡¯s brow slowly furrowed, the corners of his mouth pulling into a frown. ¡°Worrying news indeed. You made the right call, heading out this way.¡± His gaze shifted to Riley. ¡°I know this must seem rude, but would you mind giving the room to Kim and myself? I¡¯d like to discuss the matter in privacy.¡±
¡°I... was there too. I saw it myself.¡±
¡°I don¡¯t doubt that. But Kim has been in the game for longer, she knows more of the intricacies of the situation. And... being frank, I don¡¯t want you to hear anything that might terrify you.¡±
¡°That... doesn¡¯t do much to reassure me.¡± After what Kim had told him, what fresh horrors did he have to learn about? But he¡¯d oblige the man. ¡°One more thing. Uh... do you people have a blacksmith here?¡±
¡°Head to the basement. Hammer the Smith, our resident iron worker, will see you right.¡±
Riley left them to it and promptly made his way down to the lower reaches of the gaol. Once underground, the pale light of the windows was replaced by flickering torches that had been planted equidistant in the wall sconces.
Here, the building¡¯s former nature became more obvious. Manacles left bolted to the wall, thankfully devoid of former residents, stockades and racks left coated in dust and cobwebs, and wall hooks that had once housed all manner of weapons.
The sound of metal being hammered drew Riley in closer, and he found himself walking into a circular chamber lit by the blaze of an ignited forge. He froze, laying his eyes on the... person operating the forge.
A short, grey-skinned being with a mop of ashen hair, and golden cat-like eyes. The most striking feature of the being, dressed in a dark tool-stuffed sock, was his long and pointed nose.
¡°Aha!¡± He grinned, revealing rows of sharp teeth, and raised his smith¡¯s hammer high overhead. ¡°Welcome to Hammer¡¯s hammerworks!¡±
XXVI. The Fallen
Riley froze in place, staring wide-eyed at the figure. He had expected another human, not someone who only came a little past his elbow.
¡°You¡¯re... Hammer?¡±
He nodded like an excited dog. ¡°Yes! Hammer make weapon! Humans give Hammer tool, Hammer WHACK WHACK WHACK steel into sharp bits!¡±
¡°And... what are you, exactly?¡±
Hammer stared at him with a vacant look. ¡°Hammer is Hammer.¡±
¡°You¡¯re not a... human.¡±
¡°Halfling!¡± Hammer said, his grin somehow broadening.
Riley continued to stare at the creature. When he thought of halflings, he thought of hairy-footed little people, lacking the beards and pickaxes of dwarves, gleefully smoking pipes in their flower-filled groves. He did not think of grey-skinned shark people.
Hammer scurried around, pulling a red hot blade from his forge. His hammer whacked viciously into it, molding it into a sharper, flatter shape. He dunked it into a nearby bucket of water, kicking up a great froth of bubbles. The hissing sound echoed through the cavern.
Well, whatever the blond was, Riley noted he was astute at his chosen task. The weapons hanging near his forge certainly looked imposing.
¡°Can you make anything with bolstering stones?¡± he asked.
Excitement lit up Hammer¡¯s face. The creature scurried over, clutching his namesake tight in his hand. ¡°Rare metal! Yes, good! Give!¡±
Riley nodded, fishing the stone from his Inventory. That made Hammer almost salivate. He grasped it, clutching the marbled metal in his hands. He nibbled on the edge of it, nearly slobbering across the jagged surface.
¡°It¡¯s real,¡± he whispered, awestruck.
¡°I want to make my equipment stronger. If you use that on my staff, will that make my spells more potent?¡±
Hammer nodded. ¡°Bolstering stone makes the magic hum stronger. Spells have extra kick to them! Hammer has seen, many times. Let me help. Love to work with metal.¡±
¡°I... gathered that.¡±
Riley handed over his staff and let the creature work away. As he did so, Arubis materialised just beside him. ¡°Halflings are something of a rare breed of people. They dwell either in isolation in the forests, or in the mountains. They¡¯re... odd, I suppose you could say. Usually driven and singleminded on whatever they are passionate about. Hammer, for instance, seems to have a deep love for blacksmithing.¡±
¡°So the Strays put him to work here? Doesn¡¯t look like he¡¯s a slave or anything.¡± No shackles, nobody overseeing him. It was likely he would simply keep working here, provided he still had coal and metal to feed into his forge. And judging by the small pile of meat-stripped beast ones in one corner of the room, it seemed he was well fed too.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Hammer returned some minutes later, beaming and brandishing Riley¡¯s staff. The tip smoked, and there seemed to be a newfound gleam in the obsidian. He didn¡¯t have anyone to test it upon, unwilling to harm Hammer, but he felt magic thrumming through the wood of the staff with newfound potency. It was stronger, he had no doubt about that. But he would have to wait to find out how much stronger it was.
¡°Thanks, Hammer. I appreciate it.¡±
¡°Hammer help anytime. Bring more bolster stones, Hammer make weapons stronger still. Only...¡± His grin faltered. ¡°Hammer is good smith. But not the best. Can only improve weapons so much, even with bolster stones. You want strongest weapons in Kerberos? Need to find the best smith.¡±
¡°And who might that be?¡±
Hammer hummed. ¡°Don¡¯t know him personally. Hear he lives near Prospera. Gildeneye is what they call him. Supposed to be god of forges.¡±
Gildeneye... Riley committed the name to memory as he put his staff away. ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind, if I¡¯m ever in dire need.¡± But if bolstering stones were rare, it would likely be a long time before it would come to that.
He left Hammer to his own devices and spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the grounds. He found another Lodestone in the Courtyard of the gaol, embedded in the trunk of a gnarled old tree, and activated it. A handy teleportation point to use if he needed more upgrades from Hammer.
Come the evening, with the sun sinking into the horizon, the Strays called for dinner in the feast hall of the gaol. A roasted boar, charred a deep brown hue, served with a thick soup made from vegetables grown in the gaol¡¯s vegetable garden. And, to Riley¡¯s shock, trays of french fries from locally grown potatoes. It was a reminder that the people who surrounded him were once humans from good old Earth.
Kim and Stark joined them, the latter looking more troubled than before. Two other Wardens made their way to the table, joining Kenji and Beth. Carver, a sullen-faced black man in crimson wizard robes, and Layla, a young woman adorned in the hood and leathers of a ranger. Even Hammer ate at a table, tearing at his pork with his bare hands.
Another Warden, Boris, had taken his dinner earlier and was currently walking the battlements, just in case any threats approached the gaol.
¡°It¡¯s an unfortunate situation to be in, Riley, I know,¡± Stark said, quaffing from a horn of ale. ¡°None of us want to be here, fighting monsters and putting our necks on the line. Frankly, only a headcase would want a life like this. But I hope that this shows you that this shows you that it doesn¡¯t have to be all bad.¡±
¡°This is pretty nice. But I was warned that there are Wardens out there who are... dangerous.¡±
Kenji and Beth exchanged an uncomfortable glance. ¡°Yeah. There are some folks who¡¯re more dangerous than a cornered rattlesnake, and more cunning than a hungry cat.¡± Beth shook her head. ¡°Some of them at least have the decency to be upfront about it. But those who act friendly and than shank ya? A special breed of scum.¡±
¡°You¡¯ve... all had this happen to you?¡± Riley asked, aghast.
¡°Beth and myself have been betrayed, and Kenji had some unfortunate experiences early on. You¡¯ve been around for as long as I have, you¡¯ll have experienced just about everything.¡±
Riley grimaced and raised his horn to his lips. ¡°Not looking forward to experiencing that.¡± He had never been much of a drinker in his old life. But as he put the chilled frothy ale to his lips and took a deep gulp, he began to understand how people used alcohol as a coping mechanism. Sip by sip, as it settled in his liver, he felt his anxiety hissing away.
¡°I can¡¯t promise to always be there to help you, Riley. And I don¡¯t want you to get complacent into relying entirely on our help either. But... we¡¯ll do what we can for ya, where possible,¡± said Stark.
¡°I appreciate whatever I can get.¡±
¡°Of course. We do have a common enemy, same with all Wardens.¡±
Riley hesitated, holding a half-empty horn to his mouth. ¡°Except the ones who join Chaos, you mean?¡± The people who got all twisted up inside by Chaos, broken down and then reforged into monsters in human skin.
Stark smiled without mirth, but Riley could see a flicker of pain in his eyes. ¡°So, Kim told you about those? Our ¡®brothers¡¯ who have been swayed? We... call them the Fallen.¡±
¡°Fitting name.¡±
Kim scoffed. ¡°Pricks like that don¡¯t deserve any fancy titles.¡±
¡°The main difference between a crooked Warden, and a Fallen?¡± Layla said, leaning forward. Her hood cast a deep shadow over her eyes. ¡°The Fallen can¡¯t hide their true nature anywhere near as well.¡±
Riley swallowed hard. ¡°Noted.¡±
He wanted to know more, wanted to ask about the telltale signs of the Fallen, only for the room to grow silent as a horn echoed from somewhere outside. Low and mournful, echoing off into the rapidly darkening night.
¡°Boris,¡± Stark grimly said. ¡°Something dangerous is heading our way.¡±
XXVII. The Furnace Knight
The group convened on the battlements, lit by the flames rising from the nearby braziers. Boris, a looming man in a long leather coat and plated trousers, stood watching the horizon through a spyglass. The crackling flames illuminated his wild black beard.
¡°Bad tidings,¡± he said in a low, hoarse voice. ¡°Look there. Beasties coming right for us.¡±
He handed it to Stark, who proceeded to stare where Boris had been watching. ¡°A lesser avatar. Joined by a small army of the dead.¡±
A chill ran down Riley¡¯s body. He and Kim raced for the edge of the wall and peered into the darkness. Sure enough, on the distant hill, he could see the hulking rocky outline of the lesser avatar. Shadowy figures trailed after him. Barrowmen and corrupted miners, by Riley¡¯s reckoning.
¡°Un-be-lievable,¡± Kim growled through clenched teeth. ¡°That fucking thing seriously chased us all the way to Hangman¡¯s Gaol?¡±
¡°I... guess a big golem of dirt and chaos doesn¡¯t need to stop to sleep,¡± Riley said.
¡°Seems like. That or it¡¯s a completely different lesser avatar, an¡¯ this is the mother of all coincidences,¡± Beth said. She turned and spat onto the battlelemts. ¡°What¡¯s the call, boss?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t call me that,¡± Stark said flatly. ¡°Can¡¯t let that thing draw all the way to the wall. Any damage to the gaol would take far too much time to fix, and the whole place could be compromised. Gotta stop it before it gets to that point.¡±
Riley stared in disbelief. While he couldn¡¯t count all the figures coming their way, but there must have been over two dozen underlings, at least. He thought back to his battle with three barrowmen, where even that tiny number had nearly been too much for him.
¡°You... seriously want to fight that whole group?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t plan on abandoning some prime real estate.¡± Stark donned his helmet, the faceplate sculpted into the visage of a scowling man, topped with spikes vaguely shaped like a crown. ¡°Kenji, while you accompany me?¡±
¡°Of course.¡± Kenji drew his own helmet from his inventory, a sleek silver kettle hat. The rim looked razor sharp.
Riley felt his jaw hang low. ¡°Just the two of you?¡± he asked incredulously.
¡°Watch and learn, new blood,¡± Boris replied. A grin broke out across his face, revealing two golden teeth. ¡°Been a while since I saw old Stark in action.¡±
¡°Yeeep,¡± Layla said, drawing her own spyglass from her belt. ¡°This oughta be good.¡±
Carver strode to the edge of the wall, his staff falling from his Inventory and into his hands. It looked far more imposing than Riley¡¯s own. It was formed from a shaft of polished silver, with a pointed golden base, and topped by an owl that had been carved from gleaming Noxium metal, ¡°I¡¯ll make things easier for us to see.¡±
He swept his staff forward, suddenly unleashing a flare of white light that streaked across the night sky like a firework. It exploded some distance above the approaching horde, creating a vibrant white glow that lit up the field. The lesser avatar and his underlings ground to a halt, staring up at the ball of magic as it blazed like a miniature star.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.
¡°My thanks, Carver,¡± Stark said, his voice muffled by his helmet. He reached into his Inventory and summoned his blade: A jet black broadsword, twice the length of Carver¡¯s forearm. The edge smoked and shimmered in the cold night air. ¡°Keep back and watch, everyone. Beth, make an earthen barricade if anything should happen.¡±
¡°You got it,¡± she said, snorting and spitting again.
Kenji settled a hand on Stark¡¯s shoulder, both of them becoming wreathed in crackling white lightning. They vanished in a flash, a bolt of energy cleaving across the gulf and landing in the field roughly halfway between Hangman¡¯s Gaol and the approaching beasts.
Riley watched, gripping the battlements for support. Kenji continued to crackle with electricity, lighting up the area. Stark held his blade aloft, whereupon fire blossomed across his sword. And, when Riley looked closer, he could see clouds of steam starting to waft from his armour.
¡°What... what class did Stark get?¡±
Kim smirked at him. ¡°He¡¯s a Furnace Knight.¡±
Stark aimed his blade as a group of miners came his way. A great jet of steam wafted from his sword, boiling hot and seeming to slough the flesh from the incoming miners. They shrieked, dropping their weapons, as skin and Rot alike slid from their bones. A single stroke brought down three of them.
Kenji lunged forward in another flash and struck a hillock upon which stood a group of barrowmen. He landed with a thunderclap, uprooting a great swathe of dirt and sending sprays of severed shadowy limbs into the air.
He weaved through every attack that came his way after, and Riley could only barely see Keni¡¯s counter attacks. But one by one, any attacker who came near him was brought down by a single swift punch or kick, each blow punctuated by a flourish of electricity.
By now, Stark was cloaked in an aura of rippling steam. The heat was so intense that he had carved a burning path through the grass, like a long black column. The lesser avatar knuckled toward him, each movement kicking up debris from the ground, and then swung a mighty blow at Stark. To Riley¡¯s shock, the older man didn¡¯t even try to dodge. He simply braced his burning sword with both hands to block.
The impact sent a tremor through the ground, and Stark was sent skidding backward, his heels uprooting great chunks of dirt. Yet Stark stood proud, seemingly unbothered. Smoke and steam wafted from him, dancing to some unheard tune.
He rushed forward and let his blazing hot blade cleave through the air in an arc. The red hot edge struck the lesser avatar¡¯s downed arm... and sliced clean through it, releasing sprays of molten stone.
The creature let out a low moan and stumbled back, molten rock dripping from the severed chunk. Stark moved forward again, his blade lighting up the darkness. This time he stuck the cords of blackness that held the avatar¡¯s left leg together. Rot and stone alike severed under his blade, and the groaning mass toppled over with a thud.
¡°Holy shit,¡± Riley whispered. Kim had feared that thing, the first thing to make her worry in any way. And Stark brought it low with ease.
¡°This is what a higher-tier Warden is capable of,¡± Layla told him, a carefree smile on her face. ¡°Guys like that? Takes something way bigger to challenge them.¡±
¡°True enough,¡± said Boris. ¡°Stupid fucking rotspawn should have thought twice about coming here.¡±
Kenji lit up the blackness with a sweeping kick, unleashing a tide of lightning from his heel. He struck several barrowmen with it, flash-frying them to death. He bounced from foot to foot, subtly daring the remaining undead to make a move. Those who stood nearest seemed stricken with a newfound uncertainty.
Stark, meanwhile, landed atop the struggling avatar. He raised his sword high, steam spraying from the seams in the back of his armour. The flame surrounded his sword blossomed, rapidly growing hotter until the whole thing glowed white hot. He brought it down with a thunderous crash, striking the oily ¡®head¡¯ of the avatar, kicking up an explosive spray of molten stone as he sheared clean through it.
The remaining rot hissed and smoked away, and the rocks tumbled apart, returned to lifeless debris. Riley found himself mystified, staring at the display.
The few lingering undead were dispatched nearly as easily, and Stark and Kenji were soon walking back to the gaol as casually as could be.
¡°Not bad,¡± Carver said, snapping his fingers and removing the flare he had created. ¡°Guess the old man hasn¡¯t gotten rusty yet.¡±
¡°Shoot.¡± Beth turned and spat. ¡°I was hoping for a longer show.¡±
Kim gave Riley a small smirk. ¡°Made the right call coming here, didn¡¯t I? That Stark... he¡¯s something special.¡±
Inwardly, Riley felt a spark of hope swelling in his chest. If Wardens could get so strong, maybe his time here wasn¡¯t going to be totally hopeless. "Yeah," he eventually said, laughing as tears pricked the edges of his vision. "Made the right call."
XXVIII. A Fine New Steed
Riley spent the next few days at Hangman¡¯s Gaol, using it as a chance to rest and recuperate after so long spent in the wilderness. But ultimately he knew he would have to set out again, such was the nature of a Warden. The incident the other night had made it clear that fortresses like this would come under attack too. And he would need to explore the world if he was to grow stronger, and thus better defend himself.
In the early, misty morning, soon after Kenji had ventured off on his own path, Riley met with Stark in the stables. ¡°Some Wardens would scoff at me for being charitable. But, ultimately, the point of the Strays is to provide aid where possible. The opposite would be letting people grow desperate and mean in isolation, making our situation even worse.¡±
Riley nodded, donning his mask and clipping it into place. ¡°And I appreciate whatever help I can get. And... I¡¯ll try to repay you however you can.¡±
Stark scoffed and shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that,¡± he said plainly. He made his way down the stalls and stopped at a lean chestnut mare. It was not as large as Rudolph, but she seemed swift and capable of handling a good deal of weight. A bedroll and tent sat hitched to the rear of her saddle. ¡°This one has been unclaimed for awhile. Used to belong to a woman called Tess, but she...¡± he trailed off and shook his head.
He didn¡¯t need to say any more. ¡°Yeah,¡± Riley said, glancing away. ¡°Well... I¡¯ll take good care of her. But, what will happen if I use a Lodestone to teleport? Is she just gonna get left behind?¡±
¡°Once she¡¯s part of your Inventory, so to speak, she¡¯ll go where you go. Just be careful. She can still die, same as any horse back home.¡±
¡°Right. Guess we can¡¯t all be immortal.¡±
He took the reins as they were offered and stroked the side of the mare¡¯s head. She leaned into the touch. ¡°I¡¯ve... never ridden a horse before. At least, not as anything other than a passenger. Beats walking everywhere, I guess.¡± He focused on the mare¡¯s flowing crimson mane. ¡°I¡¯ll call you... Scarlet.¡±
A ping sounded in his inventory.
Scarlet¡¯s Reins
Spectral reins belonging to the horse known as ¡®Scarlet.¡¯ Gifted by Stark, the Furnace Knight.
At times, the closest companion to a Warden is their steed. Keep them safe, and they shall keep you safe in kind.
¡°Learn to get cosy in the saddle, that¡¯s my advice,¡± said Stark.
Riley nodded and steadily lifted himself onto the steed. He felt uneasy in the saddle at first, gripping the horn to orient himself, but once he found his balance he felt much more secure. He nudged Scarlet onward, leading her out into the open space beyond the stable.
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¡°Yeah, look at that. You¡¯ve got the hang of her already.¡± Stark smirked running his fingers through his beard. ¡°So, where were you gonna head from here?¡±
Riley shrugged, giving a firm tug to keep Scarlet in place. ¡°I¡¯ve seen enough ice and snow to last me for several lifetimes. Figure I¡¯ll move further inland, see what I can find for making myself stronger. Gotta do what I can to be ready for what¡¯s to come.¡±
¡°Mm. Speaking of...¡± Stark reached into his Inventory and pulled out two strange, smoky black crystals. He tossed them to Riley, who fumbled a bit as he caught them. He quickly checked them in his inventory once he caught them.
Crystallised Essence
A great quantity of living Essence, having coalesced and solidified into a solid mass. Can be broken open to absorb a vast quantity of Essence.
Often found growing in haunted battlefields, and upon the sites of massacres. The echoes of the dead, left resonating unto eternity.
¡°Ain¡¯t much, but... you might need them for these,¡± Stark said.
He tossed two bound scrolls to Riley, who quickly caught them and checked them. Spell scrolls, he realised, just like the one lifted from the depths of the mine.
Swarm
Plague wizardry pulled from the petrified city of Thulsa Ghul. Summons a spectral swarm of bloodflies to assault opponents, opening wounds and drawing blood.
A teaching of the high priest, Khultan. When Thulsa Ghul fell under siege, he unleashed this plague upon the invading army. Many men were slain by the pestilent cloud. But, in the end, Thulsa Ghul still fell.
Sense Life
Wizardry originally created by the healers of the Ruby Lotus. Allows the user to detect the living Essence of beings within a modest distance.
Originally, this magic was created as a means to find the injured and dying on battlefields. The Vergoll Empire, in turn, taught it to their kill squads so they could hunt injured enemies.
¡°Whoa,¡± Riley said, letting out a stunned chuckle. ¡°Badass.¡±
¡°Didn¡¯t have no interest in plague magic, personally. Good thing I held onto the scroll. The other one, well... consider using it whenever you have an off feeling about a place, or fear an ambush. But, fair warning, it won¡¯t work against anything mechanical.¡±
¡°Noted.¡± A good tool, if he was worried about ambushes.
¡°Crack those crystals open. Should be enough for your Oracle to impart them onto you. Seeing as how you¡¯re a wizard, Sense Life should work with your stats by default. Swarm might need higher Wisdom.¡± Stark shrugged. ¡°But, hell, you know your stats better than anyone.¡±
Riley nodded again. ¡°I¡¯ll check later on, when I find the time to make camp.¡±
¡°If you¡¯re heading out westward, you can travel with Kim a little longer. She¡¯ll be going that way, at least for a spell, to handle a job.¡±
Riley gave him a curious look. ¡°What kind of job?¡±
¡°Well... that lesser avatar didn¡¯t come from thin air. I¡¯ve asked a few members of the Strays to scout about, see if they can find any trace of major Chaos corruption.¡± He sighed and shook his head. ¡°Don¡¯t want to spook you but the fear is... the fear is that the Avatars are making inroads on the edges of the empire. Vergoll is next on their hit list. They¡¯ve been destroying other kingdoms and nations, and now they¡¯re committing more power to this region.¡±
Riley froze. ¡°And these Avatars... I¡¯ve heard of them. How strong are they, compared to you?¡±
¡°Compared to me?¡± Stark scoffed and folded his arms. ¡°I¡¯d be a dead man against any one of them. No doubt in my mind. For what¡¯s coming our way, I advise every Warden to get as strong as possible. Things are going to get real bad in the coming months, when the imperial army starts to break against the strain.¡±
¡°Any time I think things are starting to look up for me...¡±
¡°It¡¯s daunting, I know, but... the situation is worse than I thought. You need to prepare for what¡¯s to come.¡±
Riley nodded. He stirred in the saddle and gently stroked the side of Scarlet¡¯s neck. ¡°Thanks, Stark. Guess that¡¯s just more motivation for me to get stronger.¡± He turned and looked beyond the walls, to the rolling hills of the land, and the capital of the Empire.
The end of the world was marching their way. And their odds at stopping it already felt slim.
XXIX. Conquest, War, Rot, and Death
A veritable sea of smoke had risen to blot out the sky, the air rife with the stench of decay and death. Corpses sat skinned and impaled on rows of sharpened stakes, forming long columns that would catch the eye from quite a distance away.
Verince had, at one point, been a prosperous trading post on Vergoll¡¯s southern border, managing trade between the central imperium and the northern reaches of Estang and Konrad. The military had also invested a great deal of resources and manpower to ensure it provided a stern aegis to the south.
The invading army swarmed about the ruins of the city like a horde of angry ants, a diverse and monstrous regimen who had had all traces of decency scorched away.
Figures rife with rot, disease rising off of them in a continuous haze. The living dead, walking skeletons or golems born from reconstituted flesh, moving silently and persistently. Howling madfellows, draped in the red armour of War, baying and thirsting for more blood to spill. And, prowling the edges of the ruined town in search of stragglers, strode the looming white knights of Conquest.
In the heart of the town, the Avatars had congregated to admire their handiwork.
War, a towering woman adorned in spiked black armour draped with red and gold silks, clicked her tongue and sniffed the air. ¡°It¡¯s a work of art, isn¡¯t it?¡± she asked, raising her arms to the impalement column. ¡°The murder march to Vergoll has been worth the wait.¡±
Death stood silent. He always did. His hood and cloak were draped over an ornate suit of armour, each plate carved in such a way that they looked like lattices of interlocking bones. The hood itself was an ebony void, with no hint of a face or skull within. But if one peered into the void long enough, they would see cold and indifferent stars looking back at them.
Rot lumbered and tottered on swollen legs, sores weeping black pus though the gaps of his misshapen armour. His own helm had been carved with a faceplate that resembled a placid, blank face. More pus continually seeped from the eyes and lips. ¡°I wanted to infect more of them. To feel the gnawing of their flesh with my blight.¡±
¡°More will come, dear brother,¡± said War, grinning. She had removed her visored helm, exposing two eyes that blazed like coals in a furnace. She was, in many conventional respects, a deeply beautiful woman. Yet anyone who looked upon her, whether she was in the middle of a battlefield or lounging about in a quiet meadow, would instantly feel their fight or flight reflex being triggered. Such was the aura of terror and sheer inhumanity she radiated. Everything about her simply felt wrong on a fundamental level.
Her eyes drifted to the last of their group. Resplendent in a suit of ornate white armour, which miraculously did not have a single speck of blood or ash upon it despite the slaughter, his helmet was smooth and angled. It did not sport a face, as Rot did, instead having two carved eyeholes. The sculpted lines that framed the faceplate seemed to almost point toward them, to the pale blue voids of his eyes.
¡°Ideally, you will work faster next time.¡± His voice was vast and ancient, a voice that spoke of falling empires and slain monarchs, intoning the end of the world with every syllable.
¡°No fun, brother. You are no fun at all.¡±
¡°No, War, I am not. And that is why I am the one who leads you.¡± As had been the case with every world Chaos sought to colonise. It was a simple necessity. War was chaotic and wild, seeking to spread her violence in all directions without strategy or foresight. War for the sake of war. Death was silent and persistent. An inevitability that spread across the world like a cancer. But he moved too slowly without brother Conquest to guide him. And Rot, simply put, was gluttonous. Like War he was too savage to be left to his own devices, needing a firm hand to point him in ideal directions to sate his hunger.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
But Conquest was driven and focused, aware of his mission and purpose with sterling clarity. If he was to conquer, and he always did, then he set about doing so with precise and ruthless planning. This always involved corralling his siblings like a pack of hounds.
Conquest strode with purpose, the emperor of whatever soil his feet rested upon, and watched as a pair of his Wardens dragged another man from the shadows. They wore armour in his colour, radiant white, black cloaks draped over their right shoulders.
The man between them was sagging and bloodied, his torn surcoat sporting the dragon and rose symbol of Vergoll. Yet he looked up at Conquest with defiance, half his face swollen with bruises that turned his skin from black to purple.
¡°You put up a noble defence. As to be expected of Warden,¡± said Conquest.
The stranger said nothing.
Conquest stared at him. Not just at the flesh that gave him form, but at the mind and spirit beneath. His memories unfolded before him like a tapestry. ¡°Daryll Gorman. You were a... marine for the ¡®United States¡¯ once upon a time.¡±
¡°A warrior at heart,¡± purred War.
¡°The fuck does that mean to you,¡± Daryll huffed.
¡°A past life defined by violence, culminating in a violent end. Only for you to find yourself here, fighting another unwinnable war for the past three years. A shame of an existence.¡±
Daryll glowered up at him with an impressive amount of defiance. ¡°Fuck you,¡± he spat. ¡°I don¡¯t regret my past life. And I don¡¯t regret killing scores of the bastards you sent my way.¡±
¡°And what did it get you, in the end? There is no victory for you or your ilk. Against me, there never is.¡± Conquest spoke with absolute certainty, a preacher at a divine pulpit. ¡°But I could give you something the Arbiter and his paymasters never could, if you serve me. The daughter of your old life.¡±
There was a sigh on the wind, which coalesced into a vice as it reached Daryll¡¯s ears. Daddy, I miss you.
Daryll froze. Then, suddenly, he thrashed in his bonds with newfound fury. ¡°Fuck you, you piece of shit! Don¡¯t you dare invoke her! I¡¯ll kill you! So help me Christ, I¡¯ll fucking kill you!¡±
¡°Fascinating,¡± said Rot.
Death looked on, silent and impassive.
¡°The heart of a warrior beats in his chest. I shall make a killer out of him.¡± War grinned and reached for him, only to halt as Conquest slapped her hand away.
His cold gaze swept toward the two Wardens holding Daryll prisoner. ¡°Break him. But only insofar as he will become loyal. I do not need any jibbering madmen in my ranks.¡±
The two Wardens in white could not meet his gaze.
They started to drag Daryll away, who kicked at the dirt in wild defiance. ¡°You¡¯ll never win!¡± he shouted. ¡°I¡¯ve killed plenty of your pet bastards! And there¡¯s guys far stronger than me in Vergoll! Your army¡¯s gonna ground to a halt and get mowed down! And then they¡¯ll come for you!¡±
¡°I think not.¡± Conquest strode past his two men and made for a partially collapsed, ash-caked building. He gripped a fallen wall with one hand, hefting it as if it were made of cheap plywood, heedless of the fragmented bricks that tumbled onto his shoulders. ¡°Do you believe this is the first world Chaos has sought to colonise? That you are the first people to be sent to halt us? No. This game has been played across myriad worlds and realms, so many spheres being drawn into her gaze. The end result is always the same.¡± Malice flashed in his eyes. ¡°We conquer.¡±
The four Avatars stood back as the injured Warden was dragged over the threshold, into the burnt-out wreckage. And they paid little mind to the screams that soon followed, as the Fallen Wardens worked him over. Those sounds were nothing new to them. But War¡¯s smile did broaden just a tad further.
¡°So... we¡¯re pressing on? Moving deeper inland?¡± Rot asked. Something gurgled deep within their armour.
¡°You will be the vanguard, Rot. Your presence is already established and growing in that region. We, in the meantime, shall move to secure the borders until all of Vergoll is encircled.¡± Conquest turned slowly staring toward the burning corpses. ¡°You¡¯ll get your wish, War. Another grand slaughter.¡±
XXX. Gravewood
It was greener in the lowlands than it had been in the mountains, but the deeper in they went the less verdant it all seemed. The sky rarely sported any vibrant sunshine, each day rife with a thick bed of clouds. The grass was grey, and the trees seemed gnarled and struggling against the environment.
Riley and Kim rode together for a time, only halting at a crossroads that split north and south. Kim stirred in her saddle, Iosef sitting impassively behind her. ¡°I¡¯ll be heading south from here. I know for a fact that some pretty strong critters like to stalk this region, and might be a little too strong for you.¡±
¡°Right,¡± Riley said, nodding. He wanted to get stronger, but fighting enemies with a bounty of Essence wouldn¡¯t mean much if he died before he could get close to killing one. ¡°Then, what¡¯s to the north?¡±
¡°Dunno. Haven¡¯t ventured too far that way. But from what I recall, it¡¯s not so bad. Only...¡± She shifted uncomfortably. ¡°Head too far in a northwestern direction, you might end up in the Sulphur Swamp.¡±
¡°Sulphur... Swamp?¡±
¡°It¡¯s what the name implies, yeah. Went their once and decided ¡®never again.¡¯ In spots like that, the landscape is as dangerous as the monsters who life that way.¡± She reached into her satchel and pulled out a bound parchment, which she promptly handed to Riley.
Adventurer¡¯s Map.
A map drafted by Hedge Knight Kim. The linework, while crude, provides a decent overview of the region beyond Hangman¡¯s Gaol, with several points of interest dotted across the patchment. One region is marked by hazy black pencil scratches, labelled ¡®Sulphur Swamp.¡¯
Maps are vital tools for adventurers of any world. But it is up to the discretion of the adventurer if they trust the map more than their own eyes.
¡°I gotta get stronger on my own, I know. But... I hope we can work together again, Kim,¡± Riley said, pocketing the offered map.
He could almost feel Kim¡¯s smile through the plate of her helmet. ¡°Of course we will, don¡¯t be a drama queen. But, hey, next time we meet I¡¯m expecting you to be... ten, no, a hundred times stronger!¡±
Riley smiled behind his mask. ¡°Yeah, we¡¯ll become legends. Won¡¯t we Arubis?¡±
Arubis maintained her usual placid smile. ¡°It is my dearest desire to see you grow mightier.¡±
They shared a wave, and Riley found himself seated stiffly as he watched Kim¡¯s outline fade further and further into the horizon. He let out the breath he hadn¡¯t realised he¡¯d been holding. Alone again, essentially. For as much as he liked Mesquard and Arubis, their utility was limited for fighting threats.
He wheeled Scarlet around and put his heels to her, grunting as he was rocked about the saddle. He was only slightly more used to riding, after a few days of doing so, and he knew the chafe was gonna kill him well before any monster did. They went north, where the trees grew more numerous and the road more untamed.
It was not long until Riley saw the first of the dead bodies.
Corpses had been left hanging from the branches of tall trees, blackened by the elements and having been partially devoured by a myriad of predators. Some of them, Riley noticed whenever he stole a glance toward them, had wooden signs bolted to their body.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
DESERTER
THIEF
HERETIC
Vergoll, Riley was quickly coming to understand, was not a nice place. The current strife and existential threat posed by Chaos hardly helped of course, few nations could weather such an enemy untainted. But being willing to lynch criminals and display them in this way spoke of a culture that had indulged in this sort of thing for a long time.
He rode on. A smell of decay hung rife in the air, pungent even through Riley¡¯s mask.
Eventually, the deeper along the road he went, the more the roadside became clustered by short, gnarled trees. He slowed Scarlet to a trot, keeping a firm grip on her reins.
Arubis shifted behind him. ¡°This region is known as the Gravewood. A region of forest lying beyond the town of Brace. It is... dangerous.¡±
¡°Dangerous, huh?¡± Riley murmured.
A branch cracked somewhere in the distance. Wood creaked and groaned. Riley grimaced and scanned their surroundings. Somewhere, in that impenetrable darkness of the foliage, he could swear he felt eyes on him. ¡°Might be worth exploring,¡± he said.
A tree moved just as Riley and Scarlet trotted past.
The realisation of this only struck Riley seconds later. He hopped from Scarlet¡¯s saddle, nearly falling over as he did so, and landed with a thud in a wide-eyed panic.
One of the trees was indeed moving. It created and groaned, pulling its roots from their moorings to stand on a quad of gnarled legs. It was only a few heads taller than Riley, but felt taller than a mighty oak as it shambled his way.
¡°A ciern!¡± Arubis gasped.
Riley stared at it, fumbling and drawing his shotel. The ciern lumbered closer. There, embedded in the wood and nearly camouflaged by the texture, was a human corpse staring back at him.
He rolled aside, narrowly avoiding a crushing blow from the ciern. The strength of its wooden limbs was such that it punched a deep furrow in the road. Riley¡¯s shotel thwacked against the wood, cutting a chunk from it, but the ciern scarcely noticed.
A horrid wheezing sound, like the last rasp of a dying man, sounded from the depths of the creature. It swept his way, dense wood slamming into Riley and knocking him over. A dull ache radiated in his side, and he scrambled upright as the wooden monster rounded on him.
¡°It is a living tree that feasts upon flesh! To best it, you need to kill its core!¡±
Riley nodded and aimed his staff, firing two bursts of Spikes from the ground. Rocky shrapnel exploded upward, many of them slamming into the Ciern and tearing trips of bark from the creature. It reeled, sap and clotted blood oozing from the fresh wounds, but quickly recovered and marched upon the wizard.
He had to admit, he felt more of a kick from the magic this time. Hammer did damn fine work.
This time Riley focused his strikes on the fresh wounds, each blow ripping away a chunk of the ciern¡¯s hide. Yet it pressed on, impervious to pain, swinging and stabbing at Riley wit his spiked limbs. Glancing blows caught him, cutting into Riley¡¯s armoured coat and the flesh beneath. He grit his teeth and endured.
A hard swing cleaved through a portion of damaged bark, and the human corpse suspended in the clutches of the tree. The ciern scuttled back, oozing from many wounds, Suddenly it split open in the muddle, revealing that its whole body could split in two, creating twin rows of wooden teeth that could crush a human body.
Within that wooden shell he could see an organ pulse and throb, a misshapen parody of a human heart. Another burst of Spikes pelted the ciern, driving it back and giving Riley the means to press on. He yelled at the top of his lungs a he rammed his shotel down, skewering the mass. Blackened ooze poured from the wound, the ciern shrieking and writhing.
It wilted and went still, the colour leaving the wood until it had become a blackened husk. Riley huffed, staring down at the remains of the creature. A man-eating tree. The thought alone made him shudder, and he examined his surroundings with newfound fear.
Riley stumbled from the ciern and flicked ooze from his smoking sword. ¡°God damn,¡± he huffed, now fully aware of how much he was sweating under his mask. It wasn¡¯t just the exertion, the sight of the shambling tree, and its half-digested lunch, had filled Riley with a fear unlike anything he had known before.
The other monsters had wanted to kill him, but this one wanted to eat him. That thought alone made goosebumps roll down his skin. The 2300 Essence for killing it had done little to soothe him.
A thought occurred to him, and he slowly lifted his staff. He had done as Stark had asked, using the Essence crystals to absorb the Scrolls. He held his staff aloft and tapped into Sense Life.
In the distance he could see points of light moving about. Some as tiny as squirrels or rabbits. Many, however, were as large as the ciern had been,
Others were larger still.
¡°So that¡¯s why it¡¯s called Gravewood.¡±
XXXI. Fagan the Sweetman
Riley had travelled until the sun began to set, casting rays of murky sunlight through the treeline. It had been easy enough to find a clearing to set up camp in, mercifully safe, and he quickly set up a tent and fire after he¡¯d hitched Scarlet to a tree.
He still wasn¡¯t much for hunting, but Scarlet¡¯s saddlebags had been filled with preserved rations. The Strays were generous to newcomers, fortunately, but he knew he¡¯d have to be careful not to eat too much before he could restock.
His campfire was a small and furtive thing, eating away at the branches he¡¯d pulled from the dead ciern. Arubis sat quietly, her hands in her lap, while Mesquard nibbled on a chunk of jerky.
I say, noble emissary, Mesquard said in between furious nibbles. I didn¡¯t realise the climate could be so pleasant beyond the mountains. A shame my siblings are not here to see it.
Riley shrugged. ¡°Dunno if pleasant is the word to use.¡±
He sat with his mask in his lap and slowly gnawed at the jerky he¡¯d taken. It wasn¡¯t the most pleasant thing to eat, certainly lacked the flavourings he¡¯d enjoyed back in is old life. But he couldn¡¯t afford to be hasty. He knew he¡¯d have to learn to hunt at some point, practicing his aim with a crossbow. For now the best he could do was set out snared and hope for the best. Even if eating nothing but rabbit meat was hardly healthy.
He went to take another bite, only to halt as a sound hit his ear: Whistling. And as the sound grew closer, it became punctuated by singing.
¡°Oh hayayay, diddle-diddle-diddle! The cat played the fiddle! Oh hayayay, barum-barum-barum! The dog played the drum!¡±
Riley furrowed his brow. Was someone seriously singing in a wasteland like this? They had to be either brave or insane if they didn¡¯t fear drawing attention. He¡¯d had to kill another ciern before he could even set up camp, and had cast Sense Life more than once just to see if anything else was nearby.
He and Mesquard moved in silence and peered over a fallen log that had acted as a bench for them. A figure was moving through the fog of the road ahead of them, faintly illuminated by a hanging oil lantern. By now he could hear wagon wheels creaking and rocking through the singing, and the shape of a wagon laden with supplies came steadily into view.
The creature pulling it looked vaguely like a black donkey. But the neck was too long and the face too droopy to be like any human species of mule.
But for as odd as the beast looked, he had nothing on the man leading it. A tall and gangly fellow wearing a raggedy and torn suit, his face covered by a blank white mask that had nothing on it beyond a pair of eye holes. He rocked and swayed as he walked, singing his merry tune.
¡°What in the world?¡± Riley mumbled.
A madfellow, clearly, said Mesquard.
¡°Oh hayhayay, kalute-kalute-kalute! The cow played the flute! Oh hayayay, jangle-jangle-jangle! The duck played the triangle!¡±
Riley stared at the masked man, who looked almost like a scarecrow that had been brought to life. He supposed such a thing would hardly be impossible in Kerberos.
¡°Just let him pass, I guess,¡± Riley mumbled.
Then he halted in place, his head snapping in the general direction of Riley¡¯s voice. The wizard froze. ¡°I say, is someone there? Hello? Hello!¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
¡°What the hell?¡± Riley murmured. His voice had barely been above a whisper!
¡°I mean you no harm, I assure you! Fagan the Sweetman is but a humble merchant! Come forth, I can gladly do deals with you!¡±
Riley gripped his shotel tightly. ¡°How do I know I can trust you!¡±
The lanky man tittered. ¡°Good man! Attackers are rarely so generous as to announce their presence like me! Come, I am but a trader! Fagan the Sweetman is beloved far and wide for his offers!¡±
Riley narrowed his eyes. He focused on the cart and could glimpse some of the wares poking through. ¡°Okay,¡± he said. ¡°You can come up and we can trade.¡± He could do with trading in his hatchet, and he was curious to know what was available.
He glanced to Arubis, who produced the pouch of electrum coins he had been gathering up to this point. Time to see if they had any worth.
Fagan made his way up. Once they were close to each other, Riley could see how tall the man was. They were eye level, but that was only from how the lanky man stooped his posture.
Riley looked into the bloodshot eyes behind the mask, and at the shock of grey hair on his head. Would people really let a man like that into their town?
¡°Oooh. A Warden, are you?¡± Fagan asked, cocking his head. ¡°Oh yes, Fagan can tell. Your kind have an... aura to them. Fascinating.¡±
¡°And you¡¯re... not a Warden?¡±
I¡¯m not sure that one is even human to start with! said Mesquard.
¡°This sweetman you see before you is but a humble pedlar of wares. I could not take the burden you carry, ahaha.¡± He could almost picture a very ugly smile behind that mask. ¡°But this humble sweetman takes pride in aiding those in need. Mayhaps I can equip you for your journey?¡±
¡°Uh... Mayhaps, yeah,¡± Riley said. ¡°What do you have?¡±
Chuckling in that eerie way of his, Fagan capered to his wagon and opened a few latches. The wooden panels that unfolded were laden with an assortment of bags, mason jars, and weapons. ¡°Gravewood is harsh territory my friend. The cieren make meat of many men. And they say there are things far nastier lurking in the woods.¡±
He reached over and lifted a wooden torch, housing a strange reddish stone in its steely prongs. ¡°But ciern are trees, and trees have one natural enemy. Fire.¡± He stroked a blade across the reddish rock, and a plume of fire instantly spread across it. ¡°This, young chum, is a torch fitted with emberstone. A rare rock plucked from underground magma caverns. It carries the heat of the earth within itself.¡±
He held it aloft, illuminating the surrounding trees. The branches of the trees cast shadows that took on a life of their own, contorting into a slew of alien shapes. ¡°You can douse the flame whenever you please. And, once the emberstone dries again, it can be relit. So long as if is not broken apart, it can be eternally reused.¡±
¡°Sounds... pretty useful.¡± He would have said impossible, but he now lived in a world where magic and monsters were very real things. Why not rocks that never burned out? ¡°Take it this sort of thing is rare?¡±
¡°Few men dare to brave such depths. The heat searing your face and scorching air in your lungs aside, the salamanders and magma golems would give even a seasoned adventurer pause.¡± Fagan flicked a hand up, producing a bottle of water seemingly from thin air. He doused the torch, the flames hissing away to be replaced with wisps of smoke. Even after being doused, the stone still glowed like a scorched coal.
¡°How much for it?¡±
¡°How much do you have?¡±
Riley frowned and rummaged in the bag he had accrued. For all he knew, he was carrying a sack of worthless pennies around. Regardless he lifted a small handful of electrum coins and held them out.
Fagan clicked his tongue. ¡°A bit of a light sum, for such a wonder.¡±
¡°I could throw in a hatchet if that sweetens the pot?¡±
He considered this, cocking his head. ¡°And another coin?¡±
Sighing, Riley fished an extra one out, and then retrieved the hatchet from his inventory. It had served him well, but the shotel had it beat in every way. No sense in going back.
And the torch would be useful for things other than lighting up evil trees.
¡°I take it you¡¯re light on funds, my young chum?¡±
Riley nodded. ¡°Haven¡¯t had much of a chance to scoop up money.¡±
¡°Well, I may be able to guide you to a place housing riches. If you think you can handle a spot of danger.¡± He felt Fagan¡¯s eyes on him, the intensity of his gaze sending a shudder down Riley¡¯s spine. ¡°This land was not always ruled by Vergoll. It was, for a time, a haven for a race no longer among us. A tribe who lived and communed with nature, and kept the dangers of the Gravewood content.¡±
Riley shifted from one foot to the other. He had a good idea where Fagan was going with this.
¡°The Picts once ruled this land. They built temples and catacombs, and filled them with precious metals and jewels they pried from the earth. Vergoll plundered many of them, as is their way, but the danger of the Gravewood has kept some untouched. One catacomb, as it happens, is not too far from here.¡±
¡°You want me to walk deeper into this foggy, monster-infested wood to rob a tomb that¡¯s probably haunted? Just to get some money?¡±
Fagan leaned closer. A rasping sound, partway between a laugh and a wheeze, rose in his throat. ¡°It¡¯s dangerous, my young friend, but the prize of the Pict¡¯s treasure? You¡¯ll find it quite worth the risk, of that I have no doubt.¡±
XXXII. The Lost Tomb
Riley considered the offer. He supposed getting more coins would be beneficial, the thought lingering as he roamed his eyes along Fagan¡¯s assortment of weapons and armour. No doubt the traders closer to civilization had even better, more expensive wares.
But, more than that, the prospect of killing strong enemies in this tomb and gathering their Essence was too good to ignore.
¡°I guess I could take a look.¡±
¡°Wonderful. It is dangerous, I shan¡¯t lie. But, ah, you¡¯re a Warden aren¡¯t you? Immortality is a powerful weapon. Whatever may kill you, you can still come back and overcome.¡±
Riley fought the urge to roll his eyes. To an outsider it must have seemed nice, but dying was still the worst pain imaginable every time it had happened. ¡°Any idea what might be living in this catacomb?¡± he asked.
¡°Who can say?¡± Fagan shrugged his gangly shoulders, a movement that highlighted the many sharp angles of his physique. ¡°But the tombs of the world make fine habitats for many nasty things. And the Picts were known to leave dangerous traps for their enemies.¡±
¡°Joy.¡±
Dangerous, perhaps, but we may meet more allies in the shadows, said Mesquard.
Riley watched as the trader raised a hand, his bony finger pointing into the distant gloom. ¡°Due east, you will start to see decaying stone pillars partway devoured by the earth. Follow them as guideposts, and you will find the Pictish temple.¡± He turned and went to leave, folding up the screens of his wagon. ¡°Are you heading to Brace, perchance? Then we may meet again.¡±
¡°You¡¯re seriously travelling through here on your own? It¡¯s... kind of dangerous,¡± Riley said.
Another rasping chuckle rose in Fagan¡¯s throat. ¡°Many¡¯s the fool who have underestimated Fagan the Sweetman.¡± He ventured off, and his rickety wagon wheels and discordant singing faded steadily into the distance.
Riley slept through that night without issue. Come the morning the group had a simple breakfast of grains and broke camp. Scarlet was fed and watered, but Riley had to guide her by the reins because the space between the trees was too narrow to ride through.
Occasionally he would pause and scan the area with Sense Life, only pressing on when things felt safe enough to do so. ¡°What do you know about the Picts?¡± Riley asked.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Arubis folded her hands in her sleeves, dutifully following his lead. ¡°An ancient people. Forest dwellers. Many of them in Vergoll were destroyed long ago. I suppose the equivalent from your world may be... elves?¡±
¡°Elves, huh,¡± Riley murmured. He thought about the elves he had seen in pop culture, and thought of shining cities, and gleaming swords. And, yes, a close tie to nature. But it seemed the Picts had more of a rustic, tribal vibe to them. When they had lived, at least.
It did not take long for him to find the first stone pillar, overgrown with moss and grass, the surface sporting faces carved into it. From there he found more posts, one after the other, having to pick his way through the foliage and trees to do so.
Occasionally he found himself faced against coyote-sized critters who rushed his way from the brush. Minor threats, easily dispatched. Whenever he saw a gathering of trees, he would halt and scan them with Sense Life, only pressing on whenever he was certain they were normal trees.
Then, gradually, the trees and fog parted to reveal a structure that had been partway overgrown with moss and vines. A stone temple that reminded Riley briefly of an ancient Mesoamerican pyramid. The entrance was a yawning black chasm, with fog seeping from it. A shiver raced through Riley¡¯s body at the sight of it.
¡°Maybe this isn¡¯t such a great idea.¡±
¡°All will be well. There is no challenge you cannot overcome.¡± Arubis smiled at him as he hitched Scarlet to a narby tree. ¡°And the challenge here may be what you crave, if strength is your wish.¡±
Riley nodded and reluctantly ventured inside, securing his mask as he went. He made a point to dry his emberstone torch with the hem of his coat, and then dragged the dry surface along the stone wall. Sparks lit up from the impact and ignited the surface, casting warm orange light into the tunnel. Dust, more than an inch thick, coated the floor and rose in swirls whenever Riley took a step deeper inside.
Something pale glinted just ahead, and Riley ventured cautiously toward it. He gripped his staff in his other hand, his mouth running dry. He drew close enough for the torchlight grew bright enough to illuminate a small, foot-sized Lodestone. It lit up as he touched it, the smoky light flickering within the jagged depths of the stone.
¡°That¡¯s something at least,¡± Riley murmured. The words echoed down the halls of the catacomb, like a chorus of whispers. Perhaps the first words to be spoken within these walls in centuries.
I hate to say it, but this almost makes my homeland seem positively beautiful in comparison. Mesquard twitched is whiskers and retreated to his pocket.
¡°Hopefully we won¡¯t be here too long, bud.¡±
He gripped his staff tighter, the leather in his gloves straining. He took a step down the tight corridor and took a moment to light up the ancient sconces in passing. His footteps echoed ahead of him for a considerable distance.
Then, as he neared a doorway, he came to a halt. The echoing of his footsteps ceased and were replaced with a different sound that sent a shiver racing down Riley¡¯s spine. Something was skittering about in the darkness ahead of him.
Inwardly, he cursed his own curiosity. And Fagan for suggesting this place to him. But if he could derive wealth and Essence from this place, then so be it.
He ventured deeper inside and entered the first room. Stone slabs were laid out, six in total, and long dead skeletons lay mummified on each of them. Their clothes had long rotted away into ragged strips. Save for the stone masks they wore, carved from jade to resemble the pointed spokes of a rising sun.
On one level, Riley certainly felt bad about grave robbing. And he certainly understood how wrong it was to plunder from indigenous people. But, on the other hand, he was facing the end of the world. He had to do whatever he could to not only survive, but win too. Sacrificing some of his moral compunctions was another price to pay.
He reached over to grab one of the masks.
The skeleton, in turn, jerked a hand up to grab at him.
XXXIII. A Mournful Song
Riley jumped away from the skeletal fingers before they could fully close around his wrist. All around him the lanky skeletons, six in total, rose from the slabs with a click and clack of mould-encrusted bones. A horrid green light shone from the empty sockets of the skeletons, shimmering along the carved jade masks.
He froze where he stood, glancing all around him with his torch raised high. He quickly realised that each skeleton had a head on him in height, and their fingerbones were inhumanly long and sharp. Like avian talons.
In the past, before his first death, Riley had found the idea of ¡®scary skeletons¡¯ to be ridiculous. Whether they were monsters in movies, or enemies in video games, he couldn¡¯t take them seriously. A skeleton was just the frame upon which the muscles were built around. Those were what allowed the body to move, and a skeleton moving without them had seemed foolish to him.
Now, seeing several of them shamble about in the murky darkness with his own two eyes, there was nothing foolish about them at all.
One lunged at him with uncanny speed, and Riley only barely avoided the claws as they punched into the wall behind him. The second set of claws from the next skeleton hit closer, grazing his side and cutting though his coat. Riley hissed and jumped away, blood oozing from the fresh wounds. His torch swung around, an arc of flame in the blackness, and slammed into the ribs of one skeleton. Several of them exploded into dust on impact, but the undead scarcely noticed.
More claws swept at him, sharper than steel, and Riley pushed toward the doorway to get some space. Nicks and cuts grazed his skin, but none of the creatures could grab him.
A hard swing of his staff knocked the skull clean off of one, which rolled across the temple floor with a clatter. Yet the body remained standing, striding awkwardly toward him.
¡°Course it¡¯s another damn thing that doesn¡¯t have a body for plague magic to effect!¡± Riley growled. The tip of his staff parried away an incoming swipe, sparks flying from the Noxium spike. His staff swept outward, striking the nearest skeleton in the spine and cleaving clean through it.
One by one the skeletons came his way, and one by one they were beaten away with sharp swings of Riley¡¯s staff. Once the initial shock had worn off, they were slow and mindless in their movements. The room was left filled with bone dust and cracked jade, while blood seeped from a few fresh wounds on Riley¡¯s body.
He huffed for breath and picked one of the masks up.
Pictish Mask
A mask carved from solid jade, said to resemble the great Bird Spirit the Picts worshipped in the age of antiquity. Worn by an acolyte in life and death.
It is said the Picts knew when their end was coming. Many chose to fight to the death. Others stayed behind so they could fight beyond death.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
Grunting, Riley placed a few masks in his Inventory. Surely they had to be worth something. But, ultimately, the text of the mask¡¯s description stuck in his mind. There were bound to be more undead lurking in the catacombs.
Are you well, sir?
¡°Just... worried is all, Mesquard,¡± Riley said, looking to his pocket. ¡°Can¡¯t take any corpse for granted in this place.¡±
He pressed on, exploring the various musty chambers that filled the catacomb, helping himself to anything glittering that caught his eyes. Coins and discarded jewels, mostly. He checked each room in passing, his torch held aloft and still burning with all the intensity Fagan had promised. Many of the rooms and corridors had bones scattered about, rotting and overgrown with lichen. He poked them with his staff in passing, just in case, but they did not stir.
Deeper inside he found stone arrowheads and rusted blades that had been left strewn about the place. Signs of a battle that had passed by centuries ago.
Riley lifted a hatchet from the dusty floor and quietly examined it and the small skull-shaped charm that dangled from the leather-wrapped handle.
Pictish Hatchet
An ancient stone hatchet once wielded by a Pict, sporting a queer religious charm. So old and ill-treated that it will likely crumble to dust if used as a weapon.
As their kingdom was destroyed by the Vergollese, bit by bit, the Picts found that their gods did not answer their prayers. In her mounting desperation, the Pictish Queen prayed to any divine force that would listen. One did.
Riley set the hatchet on the dusty ground. A sense of dread loomed large in his mind. When genocide had come for the Picts, their despair had driven them to something truly dire.
The scenes of death and conflict became more pronounced as he ventured deeper inside, and he soon found skeletons that had been left to rot in their rusted, knightly armour. Religious scenes had been hewn into the wall, depicting lanky figures (who Riley presumed to be Pictish) raising their hands in prayer to the sun.
Then, on other carvings, he saw images of armoured figures with swords cutting down the Picts. In another a group of Picts, led by an even taller figure in an ornate headdress, were offering prayer to something else: A carved miasma of blackness, upon which dwelled a myriad of silver skulls.
And then a sound hit his ear that made Riley freeze in place, and sent a shiver down his spine. Singing. A soft, mournful aria that echoed through the corridors.
Ye gods, Mesquard whispered in his mind. What madness awaits us now?
Riley steeled himself and moved deeper through the winding corridors, the path leading him closer to the heart of the catacombs. He only barely heard the skitter of footsteps behind him, and turned jut in time to see a hooded figure rush at him. The torchlight made the blade gleam in the figure¡¯s hands, and highlighted the face beneath his hood: A monstrous apelike visage, like the beastmen he had encountered in the mountains.
Yet this one was no half-catatonic thrall. This one¡¯s eyes gleamed with malice, and an uncanny intelligence. The blade grazed his shoulder, an arc of fresh blood spurting onto the wall.
¡°Shit,¡± Riley hissed, wheeling away from the figure. In the firelight, he got a better look at the figure¡¯s cloak as it fanned behind him. The leather, Riley grimly noticed, was human skin that had been tanned and stitched together. The eyeholes and nostrils and mouths gaping up at him made that all too obvious.
He jabbed his torch forward, aiming to jam it in the wildman¡¯s face. But, to his shock, the beastly swordsman backflipped away from him and landed neatly on the balls of his feet.
¡°What the hell?¡± Riley mumbled, dumbstruck as the creature reached for something on the raggedy cord of his belt. A one that had been hollowed and carved into a blowgun. Riley grunted and jumped through the open doorway, avoiding the blown dart as it whistled through the air and pinged off he archway, breaking off large chunks of stone.
Already he could hear the pattering footsteps coming at him through the darkness, into the broad chamber he had backed into, while the wildman¡¯s blade scraped the wall. His growls were guttural and beastly, his soul brimming with malice.
And all the while, the mournful song echoed through the desolate halls.
XXXIV. Woven Grass Blade
The wildman rounded the corner, his face a mask of vicious contempt. His sword and eyes gleamed in the torchlight, making him look all the more monstrous. Riley braced, grimacing behind his mask, as a horrid hooting shriek tore from the beast¡¯s lungs.
He raced at Riley with his sword held overhead but Riley countered by summoning a burst of Swarm from his staff. A haze of mosquitoes, green and luminous, burst from the tip of his staff and sent a wave of pressure rolling through Riley¡¯s body.
The wildman hissed and tried to recoil, his naked feet clipping and clopping along the dusty floor. But the swarm crossed the distance with impressive speed, coming at him in a two-pronged assault. And soon enough a fleet of them were sticking his arms and chest with their stinging needles, earning more shrieks from the creature as he slapped and clapped at them to little avail.
Yet Riley could only keep the spell going for a brief period, the stain on his muscles building until he was forced to stop. He reeled backward, his arm aching fiercely.
The swarm vanished seconds after the spell ended, taking with them the ominous hum that had been born from their wings. Blood seeped through a myriad of fresh wounds that had been opened along his arms and neck, but this had not been enough to slow or halt the wildman. If anything he glare at Riley with newfound baleful hatred burning in his eyes.
He sprang at Riley in a terrible burst of speed, his blade a blurring whirlwind. ¡°Shit!¡± Riley hissed, reflexively raising his torch to block. Yet his attacker inched forward and swept his curved blade upward.
Pain, white hot, lanced up Riley¡¯s arm. His torch clattered to the ground, casting misshapen shadows across the walls. His left and went with it, and now there were continuous spurts of blood pulsing from the stump of his forearm. Riley howled into his mask and staggered away, while his attacker hooted and cackled. Blood dripped from the curve of his sword, steaming in the chilly interior of the catacomb.
¡°You son of a bitch,¡± Riley hissed, his eyes widening in his mask. That laughter... that mocking, sadistic laughter. Somehow it stung harder than the ferocious ache in what had once been his wrist. He aimed his staff again, the glint of Noxium putting an abrupt halt to that horrid laughter. Rage burned through the pain and fatigue he felt, and his magic blazed to life in his chest with newfound fury. ¡°FUCK YOU!¡±
Flesh-Rend erupted from his staff like a shotgun blast, slamming into the swordsman as he tried to sweep in for another slash. He recoiled, howling in white hot agony, while blood blisters erupted along his exposed flesh. The wounds he got from the swarm enlarged and split apart, strands of skin and muscle tissue becoming unwound and pustule-filled.
Lumps formed around his throat, blacker than coal, and chunks of his face began to rapidly peel and rot. In the span of seconds he went fro an imposing killer, to a crumbling and diseased wreck.
Riley, still rife with rage, stepped forwad and seize on the advantage. His staff thrust forward, the sharpened tip driving into his throat. Blackened, crumbling flesh with the texture of pulled pork tore around the Noxium. The beastman landed with a thud, his sword clattering away, and he breathed his last in a shallow gasp as blood pooled from his obliterated throat.
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Riley shuddered in the firelight, the pain in his severed stump burning with a growing intensity. He dropped his staff and fumbled for his Lodeshard. It radiated a flash of white light, and his injuries swiftly mended shut. Then, to his shock, bone and flesh burst from his sliced wrist. A whole new hand assembled itself right before his eyes. A new glove even appeared in place of the bloodied, discarded one, and even his sleeve repaired itself.
¡°Whoa...¡± Riley mumbled. He huffed and shuddered, the phantom pain slowly eeking away. He stared at the Lodeshard, now dull and devoid of light. ¡°The healing properties of this thing are way stronger than I thought.¡±
Catching his breath, he retrieved his torch, leaving his staff propped against a cobweb-coated wall as he lifted the discarded sword up to examine it. Upon closer inspection, to his confusion, it looked like two lengths of steel that had been woven together into a single arm-length blade.
Woven Grass Scimitar
A long blade wielded by the enigmatic wildman of the Pictish catacombs. Light and swift, it requires an exceptional amount of finesse to effectively wield.
In the land Chithay, across the Shadow Sea, there grows grass so long and sharp that it can hew through human flesh like paper. Properly treated and woven, the silvery strands can match any steel.
Riley stared in disbelief. This thing was made of grass?
¡°Are you well?¡± Arubis asked from somewhere in the darkness.
¡°I¡¯m... I¡¯m alright. Thank you.¡± He examined the stats of the sword. It had his shotel beat in damage and range, but it required 28 Nimbleness to wield. He pocketed it in his inventory, and then checked his Essence.
9500 in total. That swordsman had been worth a healthy bundle. He put an extra point in Nimbleness, giving himself 18 in total.
He stopped, seeing something glinting on the corpse¡¯s finger. A silvery ring. He lifted it off the finger, far beyond the point of daring about robbing the dead, and inspected it.
Ring of the Cat
A strange silver ring, lifted from the corpse of a peculiar wildman. Boosts the Nimbleness of the wearer, and gives access to uncanny agility.
Words engraved on the inside of the band read as follows: ¡®The Brotherhood of the Cat welcomes you.¡¯
¡°Ominous.¡± He pulled his left glove off and slipped the ring on, regardless. The ring gave him a flat five points to Nimbleness. ¡°Alright... that¡¯s pretty good. But where¡¯s the uncanny agility?¡±
He jumped, and was surprised by how light he felt. He did so again and again, and found his body moving with some of the swiftness he had seen from his attacker. An idea came to his mind as he thought back on their fight, the backflip he had seen.
On a whim, he leapt high and did the same. And, to his shock, he pulled the flip off cleanly in the air. The world tumbled briefly in his vision, yet he landed with perfect balance and felt no dizziness. A grin broke out across his face, and he found himself flipping back across the length of the room, springing his body off the floor whenever his palms touched them.
Gah! C-cease this! I¡¯ll be ill!
Mequard¡¯s exclamation made Riley skid to a halt. In the chaos of everything that had just happened, he had forgotten about the rat almot entirely. ¡°Oh!¡± he laughed nervously ¡°Sorry, Mesquard. I got carried away.¡±He cleared his throat, retrieving his staff and torch.
The rat groaned from inside Riley¡¯s robe. I believe I shall refrain from your pocket going forward.
¡°Might be for the best...¡± But Riley couldn¡¯t help but be excited. He¡¯d barely been able to do a cartwheel in his old life. Now he was flipping around like a damn superhero. He could get used to that. And even if nothing else came from his time here, the ring was a fine boon to pull from the catacomb.
He pressed on, guided by torchlight, to the singing that still echoed from the heart of the catacomb.