Chapter 157: Frost Salamander

I let Maveith sleep as I prepared breakfast for both of us, finely dicing some bear meat to make patties. As I worked, I popped one of the clear essences into my mouth. This would raise and fortify my aether tolerance, which indicated my natural resistance to channeling substantial amounts of aether. If a mage pulled too much aether too quickly, they risked burning out their aether channels. The old healer in Sobral was burnt out. I thought I might be at risk of the same if I started using the aether restorative potions.

As the sphere dissolved, the world around me and my perception of it momentarily muted. It felt like the opposite effect of the perception essence. My best guess was that the dungeon was so saturated with aether that it affected me.

The smell of cooking meat roused Maveith, who took over the cooking duties after handing me the amulet. “How did it go, Maveith?”

“It was cathartic. I will never get tired of seeing my sister again,” he rumbled with strong emotion. He smiled widely. “We fought the orcs and ankhegs together and were victorious.”

“I am glad. How about you use the amulet every third rest? Just remind me?” I offered.

“I would appreciate it. You are a true friend to let me use something so precious,” he intoned deeply while nodding enthusiastically.

“Do you want another quickness essence?” I asked, already holding the small green spheres in my hand. Maveith nodded eagerly, and I placed all the remaining dark green essences into his hands, which widened his eyes in surprise. “Just take one a day. Let me know when you run out, and you can choose something else.”

Maveith swallowed one immediately and placed the remaining spheres in his pocket. He focused on cooking, as he was the much better cook. Maveith handed me the finished meal: bear patties and apple slices drizzled with hot apple-berry jam.

While we ate, he asked, “Did you take one of the magic affinities?”

“No, I took an aether tolerance essence. I had trouble the last time I used a magic affinity essence and have been reluctant to try again.” I winced reflexively, recalling the pain from the earth essence I consumed, how abused my body was afterward, and the foul stench I emitted.

“I am here to watch over you, Eryk.” His deep voice became serious. “You have many secrets. I will keep any you are willing to share.” There was something about the big gray man that just made you want to trust him.

“I will consider it. I also explored up the stairs. It is a big climb and ends in a frozen lake chamber with a giant lizard that can burrow through the ice. It hunts large eels in the water.” I continued to explain what I had found at the top of the stairs. My description of the creature did not ring any bells for Maveith.

“I am going to get some sleep with the amulet. I will see if I can figure out what the creature is.” Maveith looked anxious.“Can you leave the vines? I can start on the rope. Maybe leave the reader table out as well?”

I smirked as he was clearly getting addicted to tracking his progress. The essences would not affect him much, but regaining his lost muscle and body mass would quickly raise his physical stats. I left the tablet reader table and the pile of vines for him.

Entering the dreamscape, everything looked normal until I entered the ankheg room. The strong metallic smell of blood assaulted my senses. Dozens of abused orc corpses littered the room alongside two foul-smelling dead ankhegs. I muttered, “At least clean up after yourself, Maveith.”

I eliminated all smells first, removing the orc bodies and resetting the room. I would have to tell him that the amulet remained as he left it. With the room clean and live ankhegs hibernating underground, I headed toward the scorpion room. In the water room with the centipede fish, I was shocked to find Zarana swimming.

Seeing me, she left the water, climbing onto the floating stone in front of me—and she was naked. I averted my eyes.“Sorry, I didn’t know you were in here.” Then I remembered I was in the dreamscape and took in her body. I had impure thoughts and wondered just what Maveith was doing with his sister in the dreamscape.

“Is Maveith back?” Zarana asked as I remained speechless. I used my power in the dreamscape to clean her clothes and put them on her body. She looked at the garments, disappointed either in their style or just in being clothed.

“No, Zarana. Why are you in this room?” Which sounded like a stupid question.

Her deep, feminine voice laughed, “Cleaning the blood of the orcs off, of course!”

“How? Did Maveith let you—let you wander the dungeon?” I was trying to figure out what freedoms this construct Maveith created had.

“Maveith said I could do whatever I wanted. I wanted to swim,” she said with a mischievous grin. “Do you want to join me? You are Eryk, Maveith’s little friend?” Little friend? I guess compared to the seven-foot bald, gray-skinned goliath woman in front of me, I would appear that way.

“Yes, that is me. But I have too much work to do. Perhaps another time.” I hopped across the stones, and Zarana followed me to the scorpion room uninvited. When I removed the wall, I was not surprised to see Zarana’s construct was missing. Oscar came rushing at me, eager for attention. The Aussie was ready to play. The men were playing cards. “No combat training today,” I preempted any questions from the disappointed men.

Konstantin’s construct barked, “He is getting soft.” I muted the entire table, including Maveith, who Zarana did not seem to recognize as her brother.

I questioned Zarana, “Did you tell or show Maveith this secret room?”

“No, he never asked about it,” Zarana replied truthfully.

“Good. Never show it to him or tell him about it. You can continue to do what you want in the dungeon,” I said, sitting in my plush chair with the elven bestiaries. Zarana stood behind my chair, looking over my shoulder.

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“What are you doing back there?”

“I was hoping you would read to me,” she said happily, leaning on the back of my chair and rocking it slightly. I pinched my nose. It felt wrong to be rude to the construct of Maveith’s sister. She seemed a mix of mischievousness and innocence.

“Fine, just don’t interrupt me,” I said. Oscar hopped in my lap, seeing we were not playing ball. I paged through all the bestiaries but did not find the blue lizard with big claws. I did manage to identify the potion from the creeping vine room. It was a protection from heat. I supposed that meant fire, but I was not sure.

I recreated the elven potions from the summoner and identified them as well: lesser aether restoration, lesser stamina, and an empathy enhancement potion. The dominate creature was the best potion I had liberated from the dead summoner.

I had been reading aloud and completely forgotten Zorana was behind me. “Are you leaving so soon?” she asked, disappointed. She was clearly one of those annoying personalities—extroverts.

“It has been about six hours. I have to go and help Maveith,” I said. I expected her to ask me to come, but she clearly knew she could not. I looked at the silenced poker table. “You all can wander the dungeon and interact with Big Z here.” I did not let her challenge the nickname as I teleported to the entry room and left the dungeon.

Sitting up, Maveith looked at me expectantly from his work, creating a rope from the vines. “Maveith, you do realize the dreamscape remains however you leave it? You left all those dead orcs and your sister unattended.”

Maveith’s eyes got wide in surprise. “I am sorry; I didn’t know.”

“Be careful when you clean up. I don’t want the environments to reset. I have some things in the scorpion room I don’t want to have to recreate,” I told him, taking another step down the trust road.

He nodded and added, “I understand. Is Zorana, okay?”

I closed my eyes. “She is not real, Maveith. She is just constructed from your memories by the amulet in the dreamscape. Do not get too attached. But yes, she is fine and hanging out with everyone else in the scorpion room.”

I could see the conflict in his eyes. He had come to terms with what happened to his sister but could not let her go. The problem with the dreamscape constructs was that they behaved exactly as you expected them to. I hoped Maveith did not become too attached. “I will check and see if the cockatrices are back. You can wait here,” I said.

It had been over a day since we cleared the room. As I approached, I could already see the cockatrices in the grass looking for worms. They were back. I spent a few minutes trying to count them to see if the number had changed. I only counted six, but that did not mean anything, as a few could be in the nests. I returned and gave Maveith the unwelcome news, “The cockatrices are back. We either have to deal with them again or go up and handle the blue lizard.”

Maveith dropped the cordage he had been working on. About twenty feet of the thick rope had been completed, but he had almost used the entire pile of vines I had salvaged. “I prefer to go up but will follow whatever you want to do.” Maveith stretched and flexed his fingers from working on the rope. He asked a question I was not ready to answer: “What about the elf griffin rider?”

“What about her? We have not reached a part of the dungeon that would require a third person yet,” I said, and I could see that Maveith thought much differently by his facial expression.

Maveith put his thoughts in order. “We were outnumbered in the cockatrice room. An ally would have been most welcome. You almost got overrun.”

I explained my concerns. “She is not going to trust us. Well, trust me anyway, as I am wearing my legionnaire armor. As soon as I heal her, she will attack me. Then I will not be able to sleep, knowing she is nearby, probably thinking about slitting my throat.”

“You can always just put her back in your space,” Maveith rationalized in a sage-like tone. He had obviously been thinking about this.

“It would take me two hours to recover enough aether to put a live person in the space. And if I cannot, we have to kill her and waste a healing potion on her.” I could tell Maveith was going to be pushing for her release even before he spoke.

“I will restrain her and protect you. Goliaths are known to be honorable people among the elves. She should listen to reason,” Maveith argued.

I ended the discussion by saying, “Let’s clean up and look at the ice room together.” My tone left no room for debate. We could not leave anything behind. The dungeon appeared to let writing remain on the walls, but anything on the floor was absorbed after we left, which was nice since there were no toilets in the safe room.

The two-hundred-plus steps up following the corkscrew pattern were done in silence. I knew Maveith well enough to know he was planning arguments for releasing the elf griffin rider. When we got to the room, it was just a sheet of clear ice. The large eels were underneath the sheet and swimming, oblivious to our presence.

I scanned the ceiling, looking for the creature. “There, Maveith. See how the river of light seems to go around that spot?”Maveith focused, but the creature was not moving.

We stared, and suddenly, the creature dropped to the ice, aware its camouflage was exposed. As it hit the ice, its mass caused spider cracks to form under its six legs, each ending in a nasty locking claw. Maveith inhaled sharply, and the creature looked ferocious. “Do you recognize it?”

Maveith shook his head. “It is some horror I have never seen.” The creature’s beady blue eyes focused on us. “Maybe the elf rider knows what it is,” Maveith suggested, causing me to roll my eyes.

The creature started stalking the room, repeatedly judging us. It was clearly frustrated that it could not reach us. We waited, making sure a second creature was not in the room. “Since it is just one creature, I can take it.”

“It looks fast, Eryk. Be careful.” Maveith strung his bow and got his last three arrows ready. I had not even realized the other arrows had cracked or snapped.

The creature dug its claws into the ice, and with six legs, it did look fast. I stepped onto the ice, leaving the protection of the corridor. The head of the creature snapped to me, its black eyes sizing me up. It did not look afraid. All six legs locked into the ice. Shit, if it dove through the ice and attacked from underneath, I was fucked. My armor was not dense but did not float either.

Thankfully, it charged me, and the ice erupted beneath it. The sheet rocked from the creature’s mass, and cracks spread with an eerie, rolling cracking sound. Dodging it would be difficult on the ice, so I planned to jump over it after taking its head.

At fifty feet away, it opened its maw and screamed, and a cone of snow, frost, and freezing air blasted toward me. The temperature dropped rapidly, and a snowy haze blocked my vision. Panic started to form in my stomach as my corneas quickly froze, causing my vision to blur and darken. The thudding sound of the approaching monstrosity was all I could focus on.

I enlarged the box and listened, guessing at the appropriate time. I moved the box I had made into my dimensional space and felt strong resistance—a good sign I had gotten some of the creature. I tried to move, but the cold had slowed me.

The sound of nails on a chalkboard hit my ears, and I figured it was the creature’s claws sliding on the surface of the ice. That was all I figured out as it slammed into me, whipping my head back and throwing my helmet away. I was catapulted hard into the wall behind me, slamming my head and knocking me unconscious.

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