Chapter 9:
The dungeon had completely changed. As soon as I passed through the shimmering, watery barrier of the safe room, Boone and I both stopped short, as the changes were very large, and needed a second to process.
The rubble was gone, that was the first thing I saw. The whole broken steel elevator platform that had nearly killed us as we fell, and trapped us down here in the first place, was just gone. Kintsuji had simply removed it - which meant it was entirely within her power to remove us from here as well, which I had already realised - But she had chosen not to. It made the tentative trust I had in the Goddess fall through the floor, and I sighed.
That revelation kept so much of my attention, that for a moment, I didn't really register the rest. The adventurers at the sunken pyramid taught Mia and I some extremely vulgar language when we stayed with them for over a year. I think in that moment I used all of it and everything I could dredge from my last life to describe the Goddess - all silently, however. Other things in the now giant room outside the safe room meant that making a lot of noise was most likely a bad idea.
While I'm sure I will deny it in the future, I can honestly say I don't like my Mother very much at this moment. I am sorry, again, Arcadia. Boone spoke into my mind, himself realising that speech was probably a bad idea, but it was something I had never been able to replicate. The best I could do was reach down the connection between us and send a feeling of love and acceptance to the fox. He was not his Mother, and he was my best friend in this world - his creation by the Goddess was incidental.
As for the rest of the room, I finally found the brain power to properly take it in. When we had fallen into this dungeon, the first room had been nothing more than a branching t-junction made of thick, ancient stone blocks. There had been a single skeleton, but due to the small crawl space I had been stuck inside of, it had been relatively easy to deal with.
Now there were two, standing at attention at the other end of a massive room. I froze and immediately raised my catapult, slipping a stone into the cup, but they didn't move. I don't know if it was distance or a programmed response, but I got the distinct feeling they were too far away for me to set off a response - the room really was that big.
What had not so long ago had been a junction between three corridors, that would have been pitch black if not for the Rune light spilling from the safe room, was now a huge, vaulted atrium, with smooth flagstone floors, white marble columns with gold veins, and a distinctly Roman or Grecian design to the architecture - the terms for them coming from my foggy previous life, having jumped out from vague memories of holidays spent in sunlit islands around ruins that were tourist destinations, rather than dangerous training grounds for adventurers.
Bands of elegant runes in a dialect that was similar to the ones I knew, but unfamiliar at the same time wrapped around the peak of the walls, and shed golden light into the room, lighting it as though it were outside and early evening. The ceiling was even painted with a fresco depicting the blue sky above, and the walls held paintings of grassy plains, rivers, and groves of olive trees.
Even the skeletons fit the Roman-esque aesthetic, with one holding a gladius-like stabbing sword, and a bronze breastplate over his bones, and the other, while holding a more uncommon weapon, a warhammer and a metal banded wooden shield that looked very decrepit, had a plumed helmet reminiscent of a Roman Centurion. It had a red horsehair plume and hinged cheek guards, and sat ever so slightly skewed on the skull - as though made for someone with a slightly bigger head - or at least skin and hair. Blue light burned in their eye sockets, and they maintained just enough unconscious movement to creak like old leather and dry sticks occasionally.
Behind them, in a semicircle, were three bronze double doors, all currently closed but bearing distinct symbols. One a Bulls head with curling horns and the columns of an Arena around it. One a serpent with a crown of feathers and majestic wings, and what I thought were meant to be beams of sunlight behind it. The last one a majestic Lions’ head with a huge mane and shaded trees carved in the distance behind it.
Each door had a shimmering jewel embossed into the metal of the door, and even at this distance, I recognised them: Constellation stones. Three open slots, three doors. It didn't take a genius to understand what was expected of me.
But first, I would have to get rid of the guards, and that required me to actually fight them, as there wasn't a convenient small space to hide.
It would be best to tackle them separately, Arcadia. I think I am strong enough that I could hold one back telekinetically for a few moments now, but you would have to be quick. Which would you like to tackle first? Boone stood with his hackles raised and a silent growl on his face, as we began to make our way across the floor, slowly and carefully.
“Hold off the hammer as long as you can. It's slower - easier to dodge. I'll try and take the sword at range.” I whispered as quietly as I could, but there was no reaction from the skeletons.
In fact, they showed no real signs of being animated at all until we crossed some sort of invisible threshold about ten feet from them, at which point they both raised their weapons and advanced forward, hissing menacingly like the first one did.
I kept my eyes firmly on the sword wielding skeleton as it tottered towards me, while out of the corner of my eye I saw Boone light up with wispy blue fire that seemed to stream off of his fur. I have the hammerer, Arcadia. But hurry, I don't know how long i can hold him back. I think they have a higher level of body than I do.
I nodded and sent encouraging thoughts down our link, while I braced my arm, took careful aim, and pulled back the cord of my catapult as far as I could, my firing arm shaking slightly from the tension of the rubber cord. Knowing I needed to make this first shot count as much as possible, I touched the empowering rune on the catapult leather, making the shit glow a dim yellow, and also attempted to use my new Foxfire imbuement to increase the damage even further.
The skill had instilled in me all the necessary knowledge to use the skill, but activating it for the first time was still a very odd feeling. “[Foxfire Imbuement]!” I spoke, and the words resonated with essence that seemed to act as the key phrase for activating the receptacle linked to the skill. I felt the receptacle for the power pulse, and a small amount of essence was emptied out as though a spigot had been opened on a barrel. That free flowing essence seemed to run down a channel between it and my hand like water running through a drainpipe, and I felt there was a whole series of channels buried away that were not quite part of my physical biology, but still conformed to my body shape to deliver essence from various skills that I might gain in the future to where they were needed. When it reached the two fingers touching the stone, a pale blue smoke seeped from my skin, and the majority of it passed into the already yellow glowing stone, which began to flicker with ethereal flame, and vibrate with barely contained energy. I felt, instinctively, that the rounded stone would only accept so much energy before it exploded from overcharged essence, and the two imbuements had inadvertently brushed hard up against that limit.
My arm shook, and I tried to steady it to aim in the second it took to activate both skills, before launching the stone. I wanted to groan, as I saw the shit would veer down and to the left of where I wanted, and the skeleton should easily be able to dodge the shot. But it didn't. It kept moving dumbly toward me, sword raised, as the stone impacted the kneecap of its trailing right leg. There was a sudden crack both of the impact and the power filled stone giving up it's integrity, and a blue flamed explosion engulfed the legs of the creature. Ghostly flames licked up the bone as the bottom half of its leg was blown clean off, and patches of the remaining bone began to blacken. The skeleton squealed, and found itself unable to balance mid stride. With a clatter, the undead toppled forwards onto its face, and, in another circumstance, I might of laughed if it hadn't have immediately raised itself on its arms and continued to crawl towards me, sword in hand and eye sockets burning.
Now would be a good chance to finish that one, Arc-, Look Out! Boone began to make a sarcastic remark, but his sudden fearful cry had me turn to him and his opponent in just enough time to see the skeleton, hammer now fallen to the floor, draw a small throwing axe from the reverse of his shield and toss it end over end at me.
I yelped and dived to try and get out of the way, but wasn't quite quick enough. The twirling axe didn't hit me full on, thank any gods currently listening, but it caught my shoulder and upper arm in a glancing blow and opened a deep gash that began to bleed profusely. I screamed in pain as the agony of the wound hit me like a wave, and also as I hit the stone floor at the end of my dive, jarring the wound and tossing me into a roll.
At the same time as the searing agony, though, I felt an energy suffuse me, and I felt all of my faculties speed up. Energy pumped into my veins, my brain, my eyes and my tendons. I realised it must be my Resilience Talent kicking in for the first time in my life - having finally been damaged enough in a way that mattered for the ability to register it:
Resilience. Level: Wood 1
* 10% of each instance of unique received damage is resisted and converted to a Boon, granting an instance of [steadfast].
* [Steadfast] (Boon, Holy, stacking) each instance of [Steadfast] grants a 10% bonus to all attributes. May accrue one stack for each level of the body attribute (current stack maximum: 1) Boons fade swiftly once damage ceases or when healing is applied.
My Body, Mind, Perception and Will all increased slightly as I felt an instance of [Steadfast] take hold, and I felt briefly like I was stronger, faster, and able to think more clearly. I knew it wouldn't last, but I knew it would be a help.
By the time I realised I had been distracted by the new sensation flowing into me, I realised I had thrown myself in the wrong direction in my panic - just as a bony hand seized my ankle.
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I looked down my body, and a quick reaction saved my life. The damaged skeleton used its grip on my leg to haul itself forward and try to stab me in the torso with its gladius, but I just managed to grab the bone handle of my knife with my good arm and brought it across my body just enough to catch the thrust and hold it away from me.
The skeletons’ lack of mass and it's forward momentum were the only things that allowed me to heave and shove it to one side. It hissed at me in annoyance as I rolled with it as it was pushed away from me and ended up in a position to stab down at it myself. With a mental push and a shouted “[Foxfire Imbuement],”, I grabbed more of the essence from my ability and shoved it into my knife blade, causing it to burn with blue flame, as the tip drove itself into the eye socket of the skeleton.
The blue flame seemed to grab onto the animated bone and burned like oil soaked cloth, sending the hissing skeleton up like a torch. It flailed wildly in its last throws, and as I flung myself back and away from it, I felt a burning line cut itself across my stomach as the last inch of the blade cut right through my tunic and into my side. My health dipped again, and with the sword strike being a different type of unique damage during this fight, Resilience tried to add another stack of [Steadfast], but with the ability only at Wood 1, I could only have a single stack, so all it did was reset the countdown on when the buff would run out.
I rolled with the blow and nearly whited out with the sudden pain, but adrenaline and a feeling of deep fear and concern from Boone made me look over at my friend and see he was struggling with the other skeleton.
He was visibly straining and the blue flames around his body had visibly dimmed. I can't hold him much longer Arcadia. You need to finish him quickly.
A very large part of me didn't think I could. I was down an arm and my stomach was bleeding. An actual eight year old would most likely have given up or passed out already. Tears were running down my face and my breathing was ragged, but something kept me present in the moment. A vague memory of being on the ground surrounded in my last life as kicks and punches rained down, and a desire to never let it happen again.
The dropped warhammer was between me and the skeleton, who was currently trying to force through Boones' Telekinetic barrier with its shield, as though fighting against a strong wind.
It tore at my wounds and I screamed through gritted teeth as I forced myself to my feet, but I managed to shakily get up and start hobbling my way to the slightly rusted hammer.
It was heavy, almost too heavy to lift in two hands for my immature body, and I knew I wouldn't be able to swing it with any kind of force - I simply didn't have the muscle mass or the leverage to use it effectively. But I realised I didn't have to.
“Boone, I'm going to do something stupid. When I do, can you hit it with this hammer?” I called to my friend, and reached down to push another shot of essence into the heavy lump of iron, pushing out a strangled “[Foxfire Imbuement],” through clenched teeth. It, like the dagger and stone, lit up with a blue flame, before I did something I knew I'd regret.
I started running at the skeleton. They were strong, but they lacked mass and actual muscle. So I really hoped this would work. I threw myself bodily at its braced shield and used my weight and momentum to grab on and wrench it to the side, opening up the torso and head of the skeleton as it toppled forwards, off balance due to the sudden lack of telekinetic pressure against it.
It left itself wide open and screeched at me, reaching for me with a bony hand - right as the hammer smashed into its skull through he faceplate of its old and dusty helmet. With the speed of a cannon shot, the hammer blew through the bones as though they weren't even there. There was a loud crash as the hammer slammed into the floor again, followed by a metallic rattle like a bucket being dropped as the helmet landed and clattered somewhere behind the now de-animated skeleton. Shards of skull smashed in every direction, and the body lost all animating force instantly, dropping weightless to the ground, with me on top. I screamed as my wounds were jostled, and felt my vision blacken around the edges. I was bleeding, heavily. That had never happened in this life, but my memories told me it was an old friend from my last one. I looked at the important parts of my Soul Card, and saw that my health was in a precipitous place right now. I hadn't been tracking it during the fight - something I felt I would need to get used to doing, but it now sat at 51/100, and I knew a couple more wounds, or time to bleed, and I would most likely die here, determination or not.
It hurt. Worse than I ever remember an injury hurting in this life. The wound in my arm was shallow but I could barely move the limb, but the wound in my stomach was half an inch deep and bled profusely into the ruins of my tunic. Tears poured freely down my face as I curled around the wound, and the part that was actually a kid cried out - for my mother, for Kintsuji, for anyone to come and save me.
However, the part of me that had hardened myself down to a marble in the endless space between life and death wouldn't let me give in. Without Papas’ Runic potions, I would normally be screwed regardless - even in only the minute since i last checked my health had dipped another two points. However, in this life, as opposed to my previous one, Kintsuji had seen fit to make sure I had a way to heal my injuries that I didn't have last time when I died:
Repletion. level: Wood 1
* Ingested food may be converted directly to positive healing energy, vastly speeding healing rates. Food used in this manner does not count against your required calorie intake for the day.
Within my travellers bag, for the last few years, I had been storing squirrelled away food - mostly as a source of snacks - but also as an emergency healing stockpile if I ever needed it - and if anytime was a time when I would need some healing, this was it. I didn't have any potions or healing spells handy, so food was all I had.
Once I had crawled away from the now scattered bones, I took the time to carefully peel away my over-shirt and tunic from the bleeding wounds and examine them to the best of my ability.
The cuts to my shoulder and arm were nasty but didn't think they would normally be life threatening. They were long and jagged, and weeped a decent amount of blood, but they were mostly superficial. I imagined on my last world they would have needed a few stitches and a fresh dressing, along with time, to heal on their own. The wound in my stomach and side was much more concerning. A half inch deep slash may not seem like much, all things considered, but it has parted a lot of flesh in an area of the body where a lot of sensitive organs were located. Even touching it made me near scream and cry. It bled heavily and I knew without a shadow of a doubt if I didn't do something about it quickly, I could very well die from the wound.
I took my shirt and ripped it along the jagged holes where it had been cut, and made it into long bandages and a pad of material, which I crammed against the wound and tied down as hard as I could. I had Boone grab the throwing axe the second skeleton had lobbed at me, and used the handle to twist the material right to my body like a tourniquet. That did make me scream, and I needed a minute to recover before I could start using my rations and my Repletion ability.
Lying on my back with a hand pressed against my stomach wound, I activated my Travellers Bag talent and had the small, window-like portal open by my free hand. I jammed my arm in up to the elbow, feeling around inside the one meter square storage space, and grabbed anything that felt like food began cramming it into my mouth one bite at a time.
Bacon, fruit, bread, nuts - as nothing in my travellers bag spoiled over time, it was all as good as when I put it in there, and it all went between my teeth, with me willing it to fuel my repletion ability.
The skill was something I'd practised with on and off in the last few years, and it was a disturbing feeling, but one I had forced myself to grow familiar with for just such an occasion as this. When my parents told me stories when they would come home to Eto of how dangerous the Divide was, and when they had agreed to take me and Mia into the desert with them, I thought having a healing skill that I didn't know how to use properly would have been the height of idiocy.
As each mouthful passed my teeth, rather than going down my gullet, it dissipated into a soft golden warmth and sank directly into my skin. The energy suffused my flesh and reached out to the worst wound I had, filling them with converted positive energy. The blood flow began to slow and the wounds began to itch terribly.
At a rate visible to the eye, the deep cuts on my shoulder and stomach began to knit together and expel dirt and infection as they did so. The skill was amazing - but terribly inefficient. I only had the rough equivalent of three days of rations in my travellers bag, as the weight was only decreased, not cancelled entirely, and as I sat there eating and healing, I reckoned it took about a full day of rations to heal me until my Soul Card said I was at 100/100 again. It was slow as well, compared to something like one of Papas’ potions or a cleric we had once seen perform a healing in Eto - the potion worked quickly, but the holy cure spell had been nearly instantaneous. My skill, on the other hand, must have taken a full hour before the wounds felt healed enough to walk around with. During that time Boone, exhausted from the fight and from the anxiety of seeing me injured, had crawled into my lap and actually managed to doze off.
If I had needed to heal like this after only my first encounter, I would need to seriously be careful from here on out. I only had enough food to heal me of minor injuries twice more, or something worse, maybe once - maybe not even that if I got injured bad enough.
At least my Essence reserves had begun to regenerate. The receptacle for my Foxfire Imbuement had been about 70% full when the battle ended, but now it looked closer to 80%. As an experiment, I willed my Core to empty enough essence into the receptacle until it sat at almost 90%, and figured my Core emptied roughly 5% as a result. That meant I could probably manage thirty full uses of the skill before I completely ran dry of available essence, but even emptying that much left me with a horrible, cold and empty feeling, like ice in my stomach. It wasn't pleasant and I felt it would only get more painful the lower my reserves got.
While the knowledge of how fast my essence recharged was nice, though, I wished dearly that I had some of Papas’ Rune Wrought healing potions. I knew the rune sequence for the most basic healing potion Papa could make, and could maybe engrave a bottle, but without the ability to channel essence into the glass…
I slapped myself in the forehead, and the sound roused Boone.
What is it, Arcadia? Are we being attacked again? The sleepy fox asked, but I could tell he could feel my emotions, and as there was no anxiety or panic in them he most likely knew there was no current threat.
“I just realised I can use essence now. Which means I can channel essence into Rune circuits. I didn't have to stuff my face for the last hour - I could have made a basic healing potion with the runes Papa taught me.” I replied to him quietly, embarrassed about my own oversight. The fox huffed and shook his head, thankfully not voicing his thoughts, but I could feel the merriment he was keeping inside through our link. Instead, he scrambled out of my lap and began to sniff around the two piles of bones and began to pull at various things.
I began to retrieve the apprentice engraving tools Papa had had made when I first showed interest in learning Runes and their applications, along with a glass bottle that currently held fruit juice. I checked there were no nearby threats and that we were properly alone, before I pulled out a stick of charcoal and began to plan out my runes on the flagstones. I had nearly died because of a stupid mistake and overconfidence to the first creatures in here. I wasn't going to let it happen again. It was time to act like a real adventurer.