When Sophia went downstairs for water, she found out that someone had set out some food that didn’t require reheating. On another day, she might have turned the bread and cheese into a sandwich and toasted it, but for today she was just as happy to eat them as bread and a chunk of cheese. It was too hot to cook. A handful of peanuts and a pear turned the assortment into a decent meal.
No one else was moving around much. A lot of people were still napping and those who weren’t asleep were quietly taking care of things in the relative cool of the house’s shade.
It made Sophia miss air conditioning.
Dav arrived downstairs less than an hour after Sophia, grateful for the water she left next to him. Amy, Rae, and Moti weren’t far behind, but Essia didn’t appear until Sophia went upstairs and found her drawing in a sketchpad that she hid the moment she noticed Sophia was there.
Sophia pretended she hadn’t seen the drawing. There was no good way to bring up the fact that Essia was drawing pictures of Dav without his shirt on. She didn’t have all of the details right, but it was still a good study of male musculature.
They were halfway down the stairs when Sophia decided that maybe there was a way to bring it up. Even if she embarrassed Essia, she wasn’t certain she cared. She wasn’t upset at the girl for idolizing Sophia’s boyfriend, and that was probably what Essia was afraid of. “When you finish the drawing, can I have a copy?”
“Eep!”
Sophia stared at Essia as the teenager hurried downstairs at least twice as quickly. She’d never actually seen anyone say that before, but she was certain that was what Essia said. She didn’t think the response meant either yes or no; it was more like “oh fuck she saw what I was drawing.”
Sophia wasn’t at all confident she’d get a copy, which was definitely too bad. It would be nice to have a picture of Dav, and she hadn’t seen a camera since she got here.
Come to think of it, did this world even have the ability to copy images? She knew they didn’t have the tech, but she wasn’t sure if they had appropriate spells or enchantments or not. Surely there was a Profession that could manage it, at least?
Was there a Profession that could take pictures, or would it be more like sitting for a sketch or a painting? For that matter, was artist a Profession at all? It seemed possible, Skills that could enhance or preserve color or even allow for clean editing of a drawing would be useful, but Sophia hadn’t seen anything that would tell her if that was possible or not. It was possible back on Earth, but the Guide was different enough that she simply wasn’t sure.
Sophia definitely needed to explore the city and see what there was to see when this conflict with the corpsevines was over.
“Good, you’re all here.”
Samuel’s words pulled Sophia out of her introspection and back into the real world. A glance around told her that Samuel was correct; he was the last one to join them, at least if Essia and Sophia didn’t count.
“A messenger from the Registry came while most of you were sleeping.” Samuel paused while two of his guards shouted questions. He smiled but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “First, the weather witches expect the heat to last another three days. It wasn’t expected until tomorrow, but they’re still confident it will only last a few days and not turn into a hot season. Second, yes, Registry Master Jessamine and her team tried to reach the West Conservatory yesterday while we distracted as many corpsevines as possible. We were successful enough that they were able to penetrate into the building without being noticed. They fought a number of plant-creatures, including something that they believe was the corpsevines’ final guardian.”
Samuel’s description of what happened should have made Sophia happy, but she couldn’t help but think there was something more coming. Samuel wasn’t celebrating; if anything, he looked like he’d gotten bad news. He also sort of looked like he hadn’t slept.
Samuel lifted his leather satchel and retrieved a couple of thick, stiff pieces of paper. They looked almost like posterboard for a moment, but at a second look they were more like plastic, only about an eighth of an inch think and fairly stiff but a little flexible. The biggest difference between whatever it was and plastic was that it wasn’t shiny. “Look at these; they’re artists’ renderings of the two worst monsters they fought. The vine-skull was a mage, while the plant-face was a brute that also controlled the plants near them. Neither of them seems to be just a corpse, though both are clearly imitating something.”
That answered Sophia’s question about art-type Professions, didn’t it? They had to exist and clearly they could create copies fairly quickly even if it wasn’t like using a printer or a copier.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
The first drawing had to be the “vine-skull.” It was a decent description, really; there was what looked like a human skull with teeth and glowing red dots for eyes that was surrounded by vines that made up a fake human body. It seemed sort of like a plant-lich to Sophia, but somehow she doubted it had the Death affinity.
Vine Skull [https://i.imgur.com/u20sQ1b.jpeg]
The second picture was positively weird. It had a background that had to be a greenhouse, but the monster filled most of the greenhouse. If she had to describe the monster, it was sort of like a roaring gorilla covered in many different kinds of plants with leaves growing from the top of its head. She couldn’t tell if it had eyes or not; there were a couple of reddish orange spots that looked like they were supposed to be eyes, but they could just as easily have been fruit.
Plant Monster [https://i.imgur.com/aus5zvZ.jpeg]
“Killing the larger vine-brute broke the corpsevines’ Domain,” Samuel continued. It sounded like good news but he delivered it as if it was anything but. “That may be why they followed us when we ran this morning; there’s no longer a reason for them to stay in the area they’ve been limited to. It should make them weaker and unable to recover, but we don’t know that they won’t be able to spread. We’re going to be out here until the pyres stop attracting corpsevines.”
Sophia could see why it wasn’t great news; she didn’t want to spend days or weeks dealing with hordes of zombie animals any more than Samuel did. It seemed necessary, but that didn’t make it fun. That was still not as bad as Samuel’s expression seemed.
“Once we finish that, we’ll be able to regroup at the Registry building, but we probably won’t be done. The Guide designated the West Conservatory as a Leveled Challenge.”
Sophia frowned at that. She had no idea what a Leveled Challenge was. A glance around the room told her that Samuel’s guards and the Quinn twins probably knew, since they seemed horrified, but Amy, Essia, and Dav all looked just as puzzled as Sophia felt.
Before anyone could actually ask, Samuel shook his head. “A Leveled Challenge is managed by the Guide and scales itself to the people who enter. There are a number of reasons the Guide forms them, but this one has to mean that they killed the source of the corpsevines’ Domain but missed something important and the Guide took over the area instead of letting them grow back again. You never know what the Challenge reward is, but there’s always a team award for a partial completion and a team and area award for successful resolution. My guess is that the area award will be an expansion of the Casterville Nexus to include the entire corpsevine-infested area and the death of any remaining corpsevines in the area. I’m not alone in that guess; in addition to the Challenge reward itself, Registry Master Jessamine has authorized a ten-crown award for the group that completes the Challenge. Each.”
Samuel paused for just long enough that Dav noticed Sophia’s confusion and leaned over to inform her that ten crowns would buy a fairly cheap enchanted weapon at the Armory or a bunch of potions. It might even stretch to a wand in the magic store, but probably not to enchanted armor. On the other hand, it would pay their living expenses for a very long time, including a lot of visits to the baths. He sounded happy with the reward but not overwhelmed.
Sophia could tell where Dav’s thoughts were. She grinned at him, then bumped her shoulder into his and put an arm around his back. He chuckled softly and lifted his arm over her head so that he could hold her as well.
“The Leveled Challenge has a time limit.” Samuel’s blunt statement suddenly explained why he wasn’t happy. “We have four hundred days to complete the Challenge before it breaks. If we’re lucky, that means the threat of the corpsevines is gone. If we’re not lucky, Casterville will be shredded by corpsevines. It’s possible we can hold them at the Nexus boundary, but if the Registry Master doesn’t think it’s likely, I don’t either. That means we really only have three hundred days to properly complete the Challenge and a hundred days to evacuate Casterville.”
The pictures suddenly took on a whole new meaning. They weren’t just “here’s this hard thing we did,” they were more like “here’s something you might have to kill, be prepared.” The only question was why the Registry Master’s team didn’t immediately head back in and take care of it. Was there really any reason Sophia would be more capable of handling it than someone with more experience and Levels, even if the Challenge was supposedly scaled to participants? Higher Level people ought to have a lot more variety in their Abilities, and that ought to make figuring out a puzzle easier, even if the combat was equally hard.
“This Challenge can only be attempted by any particular individual once every ten days,” Samuel added, almost like he’d seen Sophia’s thoughts, “And the members of Registry Master Jessamine’s party have to wait a tenday before they can try. They’re putting together a schedule, but we’ll probably be split into two groups in three or four days. Until then, we’re going to keep killing corpsevines in this region.”
“Is the Registry Master requiring us to take on the Leveled Challenge?” One of the guards asked. Sophia was pretty sure it was Eliah, but it could have been his brother Liam. They looked very similar and she kept guessing wrong.
Samuel shook his head with a sad look. “No, but if you decide not to, you’ll probably be out here culling corpsevines until we’re certain they’re all gone.”
Sophia had to ask. This sounded like something she needed to know. “Why wouldn’t you want to take on the Challenge?”
“Challenges are deadly,” Eliah answered immediately. “A Leveled Challenge is especially bad, because you can’t simply outLevel it. Worse, they’re scaled to your Level, not your actual capabilities; it’s possible to end up in a Challenge that you simply can’t beat and that you can’t run from. You have to have a well-rounded group, and some people just don’t belong in Challenges at all. Once we know what the Challenge is, maybe, but until then I’m not going in without a healer and I’m certain Lady Essia won’t be scheduled. Even if she wasn’t the Mage-Chancellor’s daughter, she’s Level One.”
Sophia looked over at Essia. She had a scowl on her face but she didn’t argue.