I’m woken form my pleasant slumber with a soft *Ding* sound inside my head.
Groggily blinking my eyes, I look around me, and was greeted by the inside of the small tent I had collapsed in after voluntarily dispersing almost all the mana in my body. I quickly check my mana, and was pleased to see that it had mostly recovered with a good night’s rest. Though, it’s probably only been four or five hours since I annihilated the spider floor guardian.
My next line of business was to check the tent. There were definably some faint lines of mana, from when I tried to set some wards before passing out in the bed, but they weren't nearly strong enough to keep anything out. They haven’t been disturbed, so I don’t think anyone entered the tent while I was sleeping, luckily. I need to be more careful of that in the future.〖Analyze〗might not work on me while I was awake, but anyone with the skill could see all my information while I’m sleeping.
Speaking of〖Analyze〗, I think it updated as soon as I woke up. pulling a small mirror out of my bag, and use〖Analyze〗on my reflection.
Status:Name: Katariah SilverTitles: (4 Hidden)Race: Demon/ElfAge: 13Gender: FemaleMain Class: MageSub Class(es): Smith; SwordsmanLevel: 22Health: 320Mana: 75200Strength: 50Stamina: 34Dexterity: 64Intelligence: 68Wisdom: 62Luck: 1
I had gained two levels from fighting the spider. Figures. I wasn’t strong enough already, apparently. None of my skills were affected, because I hadn’t fought enough to raise any of the ones related to combat or magic. My〖Smithing〗skill had gone from Expert Level 2, to Level 3 when I was creating Hogvir’s sword.
The experience from making Twilight had probably pushed it to the boundary between the two levels, and Hogvir’s greatsword gave it that extra little push it needed.
I had a few hundred more mana to play around with, and most of my stats went up by three or four.
Except luck. Bad luck seems to follow me wherever I am, and it looks like this will never change.
Ah well. I’ve given up on trying to comprehend it by now.
I took down the flimsy wards on the tent, and put on my mask and coat. I peeked outside, and saw that most of the group had lain down to rest, taking the opportunity to recover from the double team floor guardian action we had experienced. Granted, while the physical strain of fighting them hadn’t been very large, all things considered, the mental component would have worn down some of the most hardened warriors.
Most floor guardians are at least ten or twenty times stronger than the normal monsters on the same floor, while the monsters between floors had a few times more power for every floor you went down. The rust knight had been a considerably powerful opponent, but one which was easily handled by the adventurers. It’s normal for a group to use all their energy to beat a floor guardian.
It is, however, very, very unlikely to face another floor guardian for a while afterwards. I think that the group may have been affected by my luck, to have faced one within minutes of the other being beat. And, on top of that, the spider was anywhere from twenty to fifty times stronger than the rust knight. Not unbeatable to the adventurers, but it would become a war of attrition, to see who would fall first.
In fact, it’s standard practice to use this method, seeking only prime opportunities to strike, and otherwise evading the enemy’s blows with as little energy as possible. The adventurer’s had done this a little while fighting the rust knight, but not to the greatest of their abilitys. They had gotten impatient, and used much more energy than they would have otherwise.
And then, while they were congratulating themselves for beating a floor guardian relatively easily, reality came to smack them in the face while they were still too low on energy to do anything about it. If Hogvir and I hadn’t been with them, they would have been wiped out, with no real fault of their own. Nobody can control where and when the floor guardians spawn.
Off to one side of the room we were in, I could see the small glowing embers of another group of people. It’s wasn’t rare to come across others in the labyrinth—Quite the opposite, really. The fact that we hadn’t encountered anyone until now was the rare thing. I could see fifteen or so medium sized tents, denoting a fairly large group. Our party was actually on the smaller end of the scale, with typical sized groups ranging anywhere from thirty to forty people.
A good number of this group sat around the dwindling campfire, likely discussing things like tactics and planning out their next day. Or as much as they could, due to the somewhat unpredictable nature of the labyrinth. I could smell cooked meat from where I was, and it reminded me that I had to eat after losing most of my mana.
Exiting the tent, I made my way to the center of our camp, nodding at the watch which had been set—the young archer Samith. She kept her bow stung next to her, and arrows at the ready. I approve of this, for a few reasons. One, while enemies wouldn’t spawn in an occupied room in labyrinths, they would in dungeons, and it wouldn’t be good to set a habit which would hinder you elsewhere. Two, even though we didn’t have to worry about monsters now, the same couldn’t be said about other people. There have been many cases where a party drops their guard in company, only to be attacked during the night by their ‘allies’. Three, it gave everyone peace of mind, seeing that the watch would be prepared to fight, and allowed them a better and more relaxed rest.
Near our campfire, which was still slightly burning with wood gathered from a room full of respawnable trees, were a few cold meals. A little bit of fire magic heated up a portion very well, and I ate it with a vengeance back in my tent. Samith had given me some odd looks for carrying it inside the stuffy space, but I prefered odd looks to outright hostility, thank you. People with demon heritage aren't looked upon too kindly in this part of the world, and I can think of no better indication of my race than the two horns sprouting from my head. Granted, I am also half elf, but that’s actually seen as being even worse than just a demon. Much more shameful.
After finishing the somewhat plain meal, I meditated, recovering that last bit of missing mana as soon as I could. Meditation let you become closer to the mana of the world, and speed up the process of recovering, and growing your mana pool. If you meditated while thinking of a particular type of magic or spell, then your proficiency and understanding of the spell could grow. Most mages became more powerful through this method, which is why most mages are also unused to combat. They almost never have to fight to get stronger, like warriors have to, leading to them neglecting their physical bodies.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
There’s a popular saying that I once heard, going along the lines of—”If you want to beat a mage, break their wand.”.
Once you take away the wands and staffs that most mages channeled magic through, then they would be helpless, and unable to fight back. It’s very rare that a mage can manipulate mana without a conduit, though even those that can tend to use one, due to the amplifying effect normally built into the materials.
Twilight can work as a conduit, and actually has a greater amplification effect than most other conduits I’ve seen. Especially towards ice magics. I estimate that ice essence spells using Twilight are at least four times more powerful than they would have been without it. Well, at least that’s what I think, from what had happened with the spider floor guardian. I’ll have to kill more things to get a better handle on it’s power, but I think that’s something best left for when I’m in the labyrinth alone. As I’ve already seen, my full power tends to drew attention. The last thing I need is someone digging around my past.
It took a while for the rest of the group to either wake up or get ready. Once we were set to go, we left the other party in the first room of the sixth floor, and continued on, deeper into the labyrinth.
----------------------------------------
(Ash) “How’s the investigation coming along?”
Ash and Jourmont are meeting in another one of the small back rooms from one of Jourmont’s restaurants—Secretly of course. If some of the other fractions in the city knew why they were investigating what seemed to be an up and coming bladesmith, then things in the city could quickly degenerate. The key point was that they thought Kai was fully grown. Ash and Jourmont knew otherwise, though. And the more talented a youth was, the more potential they had.
(Jourmont) “The investigation is going fairly well.”
(Ash) “Oh? Have you found something?”
(Jourmont) “Kai was up in the north for a bit before coming here.”
(Ash) “Is that it? I thought that you had found something of value.”
(Jourmont) “No, I can’t find much out about Kai. What I meant was that the investigation is going well, considering that we’re
trying to find out more about what seems to be someone with no past.”
(Ash) “Fine then. No need to get so fussy.”
(Jourmont) “Hrm.”
(Ash) “Though, do you know what he was doing up in the north? There’s not much up there.”
(Jourmont) “Well, we don't know for sure, but there was a marked decrease in bandit and slave trading activity in the north after Kai left.”
(Ash) “So, do you think that Kai had something to do with this?”
(Jourmont) “Absolutely. I have the feeling that Kai tends to change things wherever he goes, willing or not. We just have to find out why he was there in the first place.”
(Ash) “I take it you already have some leads?”
(Jourmont) “Obviously. I had one of the old bandit chefs from the north brought in, for information. He’s already in the next room. I figured that you would be better at getting some...coherent information from him.”
(Ash) “What do you mean?”
(Jourmont) “You’ll have to find that out yourself. I couldn’t find out exactly what was scaring him into silence, and we both know that I’m no good at calming people down, or comforting them.”
(Ash) “Alright. Lead the way.”
Ash and Jourmont left the small private room, and walked down a less well known about hallway in the restaurant, until they reached a wooden door. Jourmont paused outside the door, and motioned for Ash to enter.
(Jourmont) “You go ahead. I’ll wait out here.”
Ash entered, and the first thing she saw was the man sitting at a table in the center of the room, in a way that made it clear that the man was under questioning.
‘For gods sakes, Jourmont. If you wanted to make the man comfortable, then this isn’t the way to do it!’ thought Ash.
She smiled at the man, who was instantly enamored with Ash’s graceful countenance, and noble bearing.
(Ash) “Hello, sir. Please, you don’t have to sit at that table if you don’t want to. Make yourself at home.”
Ash gestured around the small room, indicating that the man wasn’t in danger at the moment.
(Generic Bandit Boss) “Ah, thank you, miss. I was getting awfully bored and uncomfortable in her’. My name’s Godfred. What’s your’s?”
(Ash) “Ah, it’s nice to meet you, Godfred. You can call me Ashariah for now. Now, I have some questions for you, if you’re willing to answer.”
Godfred grinned widely, glad to have met a beauty like Ash, and was more than willing to answer whatever she asked. Unfortunately, Jourmont hadn’t had nearly the same impact on the man. Though, if he had, then Jourmont would have asked Ash to question him anyway, due to the fact that Jourmont tends to avoid troublesome things.
(Godfred) “Go ‘head and shoot. I’ll tell ya whatever you want.”
That night was very profitable for Ash and Jourmont, who gained quite a bit of information from the Ex-bandit chief Godfred, who was treated to a good meal after questioning. He had quite a bit to say about a particular short person wearing a white mask.
Ash and Jourmont now knew some of what to look for when tracing Kai’s past, and what might be motivating him.
According to Godfred, Kai had entered his bandit’s base without anyone noticing, and had approached the man in charge of all captured slaves, asking after a woman with raven black hair, and a brand burned on her cheek. After hearing that there hadn’t been anyone like that in the camp for a while, Kai had left, but not before warning them of the cost of banditry, and burning all their food stores. Later, word came that a slaving company based in a nearby lot of land had been completely wiped out by someone in a white mask, using large and deadly magics. There were only a handful of survivors, and now Ash and Jourmont knew who to look for.
They would find one of those survivors who had seen what had happened, and could tell them more about the woman with the brand on her cheek. It was the only way they had to find out more about Kai.
----------------------------------------