Eternium ~ Chapter 19!

The group of powerhouses moved into the next room, and the portal in the first fizzled out. If they wanted to leave now, they would need to either complete the room or climb out of the Pit. This time, they started with the Core. The male A-ranker focused his Mana into the tip of his finger and sent it spinning as a double helix to the Core. Soon, the Core was glowing cherry-red, and the High Mageous stopped.

“Whew!” He wiped imagined sweat from his brow. “It’s like trying to walk through those gravity Runes, but with your mind!”

I enjoyed the comparison, and watched excitedly as the ‘well-controlled’ Mage sent an ability at the diamond target that needed to be destroyed. He really took his time, and there was hardly any Mana wasted as he threw out his assault… which bounced off the target and into the wall. “Drat, that sucker is pretty tough.”

“Think you can break it with a different attack, or do we need to give it a try?” The female put a stabilizing hand on the Mage, who shook his head.

“Thanks, Anna, but I want to try again.” One of them finally said a name out loud! I was getting sick of thinking of them as person number one, two, and so on.

Anna nodded and gestured for him to continue when ready. The Mage took a deep breath and began focusing intently. Just as he started releasing his Mana in a condensed spellform, I let a treasure chest pop out of the wall and slam onto the stone. The sudden noise from an unexpected direction distracted him just enough to introduce instability into his attempt. Instead of a clean technique, a thread of Mana remained connected to the ability and the Wards began draining him. Anna picked him up and charged out of the room, but I didn’t mind. In the next room, the draw was halved but he continued to leak Mana like a sieve.

The Mage fell unconscious as they escaped the room, and the thread of power was cut off. Now there were two down, but they had successfully cleared the rooms. If only I had been able to set up the last few rooms before they got down here! Anna returned to the room and looked over at her co-leader. “Anything good as a reward?”

“Looks like we got a farmstead package.” The High Mageous held up a few tokens. “Five acres of land, a farmhouse, ten of three animal types, various seeds.”

Anna sighed and nodded. “Good. I think we are on the right track by coming down here. It wasn’t what we were after, but if we want to set up a sect, we’ll need farmers, right?”

“Right.”

“Keep going, or head to the surface?” Anna seemed to be putting the question to a vote. 

“Already looked at the next room.” The only conscious Mage shook her head. “Exact same setup. Correct me if I’m wrong, but this room was even harder to use Mana in, right?”

“Yes.” Responded the male a touch despondently. “Looks like each room requires greater control to get through. I say we go get these guys taken care of, and try another day?”

“Works for me.” Anna and the others left through the portal, carrying their fallen with them and arriving in the Mage’s Recluse with a single step.

<Oh, thank goodness they didn’t try the next room!> I laughed nervously. <My reputation would have been ruined.>

Finishing my thought with a low laugh, I started working on the remaining rooms, getting all of the warding in place and reinforcing the walls. I hadn’t considered it before, but if a Mage burnt out in here, the result would be explosive and I needed to have a way to release the pressure. Before even that, I needed to make sure the blast was contained. Celestial, but it was getting difficult to eat people quietly.

~ Dale ~

As the group rode the levitating platform upward toward the imposing flying mountain, Dale snorted and glanced at Tom. “Hey. How did this city get named Fek’koff?”

“What do you mean?” Tom blinked a few times, he had been lost in thought.

“You told us when we got here that we were about to crash into ‘the Wards of Fek’koff’. How’d the city get named that?” Dale waved at the glowing-dome covered crater.

“It didn’t, this is Outpost Alpha three.” Tom rolled his eyes. Dale was funny sometimes. “The Ward system is named Fek’koff. Every time someone did find this place, or asked too many questions about it, the only response was ‘Fek’koff’. The nickname stuck.”

“What the…?” Hans grasped at his chest. “You mean to tell me that the Northmen have a sense of humor? This might be the most startling discovery of our entire stay here!”

“And you wonder why the place is named Fek’koff.” Tom muttered loudly and darkly. His words made the others laugh, and he allowed a slow grin to crack his stony face.

“Yeah, he just… hit the ground. Didn’t even try to slow down.” One of the Northmen was talking to another who was controlling the platform. “We got his armor back, but… it’s gonna need some serious cleaning.”

“That’s unfortunate, but I’m also glad I wasn’t the one who found the issue.” The platform controller shook himself.

Tom raised his voice to get their attention. “Sergeant. What was that about?”

“Ah. Sir.” The guard with them flushed, then stood at attention. “The Runework in the crater that arrests the motion of falling people has failed. No one noticed until it was too late.”

Rose turned slightly green. “That’s… odd timing. I guess I’m glad it happened after we got here.”

“Yeah…” Dale slowly agreed. Then he scowled; who did he know that had a habit of taking Runes and setting traps? Sending his thoughts along his connection to Cal, he tried to keep his cool. “Cal, did you disable the Runes that catch people in this crater?”

<May~y~be?>

“Hah. That’s a good one. I’d normally be pretty upset, but I’m not super happy with the Northmen. Hey, we have good news. Tell you all about it when we get back.” Dale could feel surprise coming back along the connection.

<Why not just tell me now while you are stuck on that platform? Less time wasted.>

Dale paused, that was a fair point. He described everything that had happened, including how the Northmen were going to be joining them and bringing all the magical knowledge and items they owned.

The air shook as the dungeon shifted from how hard Cal’s laughter was. <Dale! Hah! This is amazing! Listen, I can fill in a few blank spots for you. Let me tell you what part I played in you succeeding. I can’t believe I get everything I bargained for and all the stuff the other dungeon has! I bet it didn’t even think about that!>

While the story was being told, Dale’s eyes got wider and wider. At the end of his story, he shook his head ruefully and laughed. That had worked out better than they could have possibly hoped. The part where Cal had tried to get the dungeon’s attention, and the infernal dungeon had sent confusion to everyone connected to it? That had saved Tom and allowed every other event to progress. It was likely wise not to tell Tom about it until they were alone, but frankly his status as unconnected and exiled from ‘the will of The People’ was what had ultimately saved his life.

They became level with the island, and stepped off. The platform began to drop, and the returning heroes started walking toward the area the leaders usually congregated. Really, the only impediment to this plan was when a blurred figure slammed into Dale and sent him careening into the stone of the mountain a hundred paces away. The rock shattered, and Dale flopped bonelessly to the ground. 

“You think that just because you reached the B-ranks, our agreement is complete and you no longer need to show up for your training?” Gomei was already standing next to Dale. He picked the human up off the ground by the neck, then threw him toward the training arena. “All it means is that I no longer need to coddle you!”

Gomei turned to look at the other members of the returning party. “What? Don’t you have something to go report, or do you want to participate?”

The three people started walking away without missing a beat, staring straight ahead and allowing the suddenly pouring sweat to trickle down their faces unabated. By the time they felt safe enough to look around again, Gomei was gone and loud crunching noises were coming from the arena.

“Is it wrong that I want to know what’s going on?” Hans sighed and almost started walking toward the arena. “You know, it is the dream of every assassin to learn the Moon Elf combat style. Do you think he might be serious about participating?”

Rose took his hand and pulled him along firmly. “I can nearly guarantee that when he says ‘participating’, he means as a target. Gonna have to let that dream go, I’m afraid.”