DD5 ~ Chapter 12!

Tom was strapped down to a table, the rags of his clothes cut away. Five men stood around him, each of them caring mystical implements used for purpose Dale could not divine. The eldest among them looked at Tom and made one final offer. “As always, there is a one in ten chance that inspection of your honor will cause your life to end. As you have gone through this process once before, you have better odds than most. Still, I urge you to take the offer that has been given to you.”

When Tom did not respond, the Elder simply sighed and nodded. One by one the five men plunged small diggers into Tom's limbs, the final one piercing his chest. There was a swell of Mana that battered the senses of everyone present, and an incredibly intricate Rune appeared in the air above Tom's face for a brief moment. Then, all of the knives were taken out and the men stepped away.

The Elder cleared his throat gently and softly called, “Medic!”

The extraordinarily hairy healer bounded forward once more and laid his hands on Tom's chest. Slowly, almost too slowly, the wound in his chest closed and Tom took a deep shuddering breath. The Elder nodded and looked around the room. “His honor is intact, and is his own. This man has taken no mate, nor has he bound himself to another beyond seeking knowledge and personal growth. He has a teacher, but no master. He has not disregarded the terms of his exile, and by honor alone is fit to return to service.”

“Binders, thank you for your time and expertise.” The huge man that seemed to be running this trial spoke respectfully. He then turned to look at the crowd once more. “His honor is intact. Unfortunately, we all know that is not enough for someone to be allowed to serve The People. The next test will begin shortly.”

“There is more to this?” Hans was livid. Knives kept appearing in his hands and disappearing into unknown folds of his outfit. “This is a farce. This is a way for them to discourage people returning when they have been sent away in disgrace. The cure for Berserker rage is well-documented and available everywhere!”

“Do you think they just refuse to use methods they have not created or discovered themselves?” Rose looked at the two of them, hoping that they would have some answers.

“It sounds plausible,” Dale thoughtfully replied. “they seem to have extreme hatred for anyone outside of their own Nation. I've talked to Tom about this before, and they might have good reason for it. Also, I believe the next part of this process is combat, to show that in a stressful situation he is able to maintain himself.”

Tom was pulled to his feet by the healer, handed a Warhammer, and pointed toward a door. He was barely standing, but it seemed that the people assigned to his trial were not going to wait for him to be in tip-top form. At least a dozen people walked out of the door and onto the stage, all manner of weaponry showing in their hands. They wore shining armor and grim expressions. The man in charge of the trial looked at Tom, who was wearing only his normal clothing, and began to speak.

“If you give in to your Berserker instincts, if you kill one of my men, or if you die; you will have failed.” He stepped back and off of the stage, signaling for combat to begin.

~ Cal ~

I needed to get ahold of some Warding schema. I was positive that it would be beneficial to me. In fact, it seemed almost tailor-made for dungeons and other stationary entities. Runescripts could make certain effects, but needed to be powered with what amounted to a single-use charge. The ritual I had designed to carve Ley lines into the world and make energy begin flowing was potent and powerful, but still essentially was a constant drain of power while only having a very specific effect. 

From what I understood… Wards were fundamentally different. All I knew was from the rumors floating around on my island, but if they were even a quarter as useful as people were saying, I needed them. Wards were - allegedly - ways to make shielding or other permanent phenomena and tie them to a power source. This power source could even be something as simple as ambient Essence, which would be consumed as needed. From what I could tell, Wards were the little brother or Runescripting and followed very similar principles.

I had been able to make things that were similar to Wards, such as creating areas of enhanced gravity. This had actually been the application of physical forces, and not an energetic barrier that would stop people, projectiles, or techniques. I really hoped that Dale’s team was successful, and they convinced the Northmen to hand all of that over. Otherwise I would need to learn how to do it with trial and error, or stage an assault against an entire nation and scoop up all the information before they destroyed it. Or… perhaps there was a third option. A dastardly option. Mu-hu-ha-ha!

I started carefully navigating the island toward the ground, using the resistance of the Wards to settle as closely as possible to the rim of the huge crater. Then - hee-hee - I began extending my influence and adding the wall of the crater to my ‘dungeon’. Eventually I would reach something that was connected to the Wards, and at that point I could outright steal it! I was betting that it would be placed in a central location - likely the midpoint and bottom of this entire depression - but depending on how long I’d be staying here, I might get it.

Stone, water, dirt. I had been losing huge amounts from my Island, thousands of tons of material. I had the space, I knew that my enchantments and Runescripts were up to the task of transporting anything extra that I took on. Because of this, I really did not hold back. When I left here, one way or another I would be taking a big chunk of this land. Of course, the majority of my efforts went toward sending a line of influence deeper and deeper, following the wall of the cliff.

I set my influence to flow along without my full attention, which turned out to be a very good idea. After only a few hours, I found something. Something beautiful. Now it was mine. Mine! I caressed this beautiful symbol, this Masterwork of swirls and loops, the most perfect conduits for energy that… oops. I accidentally ate it.

I couldn't help myself! It was so good that I'd simply needed to try it! Luckily, or unfortunately, or some combination of both... as I studied what I had just absorbed, I realized that it had to be part of the Ward that made the 'lure'. It was a self-contained symbol, which meant that most likely it was etched all over the entire crater. Destroying this one, single, portion of it should not damage the integrity of the Ward at large. 

I was glad that I had kept my influence moving, because every other active process I needed had come to a halt when I had started looking over the lure. I got back to work, then started processing the information I had gained. The lure was incredibly intriguing beyond its function to make it interesting. If this was an example of what Wards would look like, how they would function, how they were made... yeah, I was going to need a lot more examples.

Normally I could extrapolate from incomplete data. I did not think that was going to be the case here until I had a much larger repository of knowledge. Frankly, I had no idea how fleshy brains had been able to create this work of art. In fact, it would not surprise me at all to learn that the Northmen had a captive or friendly dungeon that did the hard work for them. 

As far as I could understand it, and using this lure as proof of concept, a Ward was a Runescript that contained a pattern. Then, whatever pattern had been affixed to the Runes would have the intrinsic ability of the creature; usable as the creator sees fit. Seeing as how a pattern is used to create a creature an object from pure energy - such as a dungeon monster - it was highly unlikely that simple creatures like the humans below me could have unlocked the secrets needed to create this. This made my theory of a dungeon working with them far more plausible. What really scared me... as I studied the lure, and chewed thoughtfully on the pattern... I realized why it was so effective.

This Ward was created using the energy pattern of a demonic creature, namely a succubus. The only reason I knew this was because I could now create a succubus - if I wanted to - with this information. There was only one reason I could think of that a dungeon would have access to this sort of information. Somewhere below me was an infernal dungeon.

Now, the worst part: I wasn't certain that the Northmen were actually the ones in control.