They continued down the hallways. Whenever they reached a stairway, they descended. Kinfild assured them he remembered the way back to the surface, but just in case, Lessa had taken off her shoulder pauldron and started writing on the inside with her engraving needle. She was making a map of the paths they had travelled.
They found three more groups of scattered kobolds, but only weak, base kobolds. Working together, the three of them dispatched the kobolds neatly, and Jace made sure to get the killing blow to activate his class bonus.
After the third group, he activated the Reader. He’d reached seventy percent advancement progress from killing the kobolds and taking some of their Aes, and it was a decent start.
When they had descended three levels and reached a hall with a body of dark water, Kinfild dipped his finger in it, then held it up to the light of Lessa’s tail. After a few seconds of staring, he said, “It’s safe to drink.”
Jace knelt at the edge of the pond, then dipped his hands in and cupped a handful of water. “We should rest here. If I can keep up this rate of advancement, I’ll reach the threshold before the decay becomes too much.”
And the day had been productive.
Besides, it was as safe of a place as any to rest, and they couldn’t just keep walking forever. It had to be getting close to evening time, and even if it wasn’t, he was exhausted from non-stop running Vaults and now this. His legs gave off the signature ache of over-exertion and overtiredness.
“I’m good with that!” Lessa exclaimed, then dropped down to a sitting position. “We don’t have any food…”
“And I guess there isn’t much to eat around here, is there?” Jace muttered.
“I’m sure I could find something!” Lessa said. “I can forage! Or, I can try. There has to be something. You two make a fire, and we’ll get something figured out!”
Jace glanced at Kinfild, and the Wielder shrugged. “Fires are my specialty.”
“Just…if you get in trouble, call for help, okay?” Jace said. “There are nasty things in here.”
“Oh, that I will! If there are too many kobolds and I can’t just blast them all in the face, I’ll come running back here! I’d rather you poke them anyways!” She let off a soft giggle, then began walking around the edge of the underground pool.
It was about the size of a soccer field, but Jace couldn’t see the bottom, nor the edges, really.
He turned back toward Kinfild and said, “How are we going to start a fire? You’ve got a card for that?”
As soon as Jace said it, he realized how silly of a question it sounded. Of course Kinfild could start a fire, but he couldn’t keep it going without effort or fuel, right?
Kinfild squinted in mock confusion and opened his mouth, probably about to point the same thing out, but Jace added, “Sorry, no, can you get a constant, continuous fire going and not have it burn out when you deactivate the card?”
“We’ll need fuel,” Kinfild said. “We can find it.”
“In a stone dungeon? On a barren, rocky world?”
Kinfild snorted. “Sometimes, you must look a little deeper.” He raised his plasma rifle and poked the wall with its stock. Pushing away a set of dark, slimy vines, he revealed a crack in the wall. Just beneath the surface was a set of dried shrubs and other natural plants. Long dead, long shrouded by the dark infestation, but dry and flammable.
They scooped the twigs and dried remnants of shrubs and subterranean vines out of the crack. Kinfild stacked them up into a miniature pyre while Jace searched the nearby cracks and crevices.
The dark vines on the wall were cool to the touch, and they made his arms tingle after brushing against them. He wasn’t sure if they were harmful, but chances were, they hated him for being of an opposite elemental alignment. Still, he tried to brush them aside with his vambraces, or to use the still-sheathed Whistling Blade.
As he gathered twigs, he asked, “Kinfild, how do you make spirit enhancements to an object? It’s not a technique card, is it?”
“I am directing the Aes,” said Kinfild. “I can only place basic spirit enhancements on items, and they often wear off after a few months—after the Aes has left the object. It takes a stronger Wielder to apply stronger spirit enhancements. I can direct it toward an Attribute I want the Aes to inhabit, but I cannot do much more to a basic item. I push a pulse of Aes into it, and it embodies Resistance for a few months, lending the user a bonus.”
Stolen story; please report.
“How many enhancements can you place?”
“Only one, usually.”
“Can I do it?”
“Eventually.”
“What about to something stronger? More important?” Jace carried a bundle of twigs back to Kinfild and the heap of kindling. “Like the Whistling Blade.”
“A spirit enhancement to the Whistling Blade would be permanent; the Whistling Blade is stronger.”
“And I could still only put on one?” Jace asked. They had enough twigs; he bent down to help Kinfild make the stack taller. “So I should wait until we can put a powerful enhancement on it?”
“Exactly,” said Kinfild. “I only have access to basic, weak enhancements, but if you were to find a sacred tome or some other natural treasure with a deep arcane base that you could absorb into the weapon and use…it could become a very powerful tool.”
“You said it got stronger as I did?”
“A Whistling Blade can resonate and connect with its user,” Kinfild said. “Provided that the user has high enough spiritual potential. Worldjumper-levels of spiritual potential.”
“How does that work?”
“It will share your system of Aes channels, allowing you to cycle arcane energy through it and lend it your own Aes.” Kinfild snapped his fingers, activating a technique card and conjuring a flame on the tip of his fingers. He set it down at the side of the fire, and the stack of twigs caught quickly. They were dry and old, perfect for burning. “The forging process has imbued it with a certain amount of Aes, and plasma-aspect Aes at that, but it will run out. When that happens, you will hopefully have a stable connection with it, and you will be able to feed it hyperspace-aspect Aes.”
Jace raised his eyes, imagining the sword’s cutting edge turning from a searing white to a bright blue and slashing through the air with the speed of a hyperjump.
Footsteps pattered against the stone, alerting him to Lessa’s return. She marched along, holding an armful of dark branches. Each branch held a clump of dark red berries. She placed them down on the ground, then reached into her pockets and dropped some oddly-shaped nuts down on the ground. They were shrivelled, dark brown shapes, almost like cashews.
“You’re sure these are safe to eat?” Jace asked.
“Well…my candlefolk senses weren’t picking up a high potency rating from them. If they’re cursed, or have any sort of arcane poison, they won’t do anything to us.” She plucked a berry off the tip of one of the branches and popped it in her mouth. “And I ate a few already. I’m still standing.”
“Yeah, but what about actual poisons?”
“These dungeon ecosystems are not proper ecosystems,” Kinfild said. “They are isolated, and out here, there are few creatures. Kobolds and the like, which feed on meat and flesh, not plants. The plants have no predators to worry about, and so they do not evolve to bear poisons.”
Jace swallowed nervously, then took one of the nuts in the palm of his hand and broke it in half. It seemed normal enough, and he wasn’t interested in starving.
“Eat up,” Kinfild said, “Then rest. I will keep the first watch.”
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There was no way of telling what time it was, nor how much time had passed, but they each took a watch for about three hours and slept for six. About every hour, the lake at the center of the cavern let out a gurgle.
When they woke up, Jace opened his backpack and stuffed the foraged food that they hadn’t yet eaten into the bag, then retrieved his water bottle and filled it with the liquid from the lake. It might have been a little metallic and stale, but it was better than running out of water.
None of them were wearing their helmets anymore, and Lessa had taken off most of her armour to sleep, but they couldn’t just leave it behind. As far as they knew, the only way they were getting out would be back into the Koedor-Terginian facility, and they couldn’t just walk in without their disguises.
But Jace had assigned Attribute Shards to Strength recently, and he needed to distribute it. “I’ll carry the armour,” he said, opening up his backpack and holding it out to Kinfild and Lessa.
“Aw!” Lessa exclaimed. “How kind! Of course, of course!” She picked up a vambrace she’d been wearing and tossed it in his backpack. “Good luck! And thank the Split, that stuff was heavy…” She rubbed her arms.
Jace sighed, then said, “I’ll take whatever you’re not going to use.”
“I’ll be more effective without it,” she said, then dropped most of it in—save for the repeller-mail waist cape, the knee and shin guards, the shoulder pauldrons, and the cape. “I’m…not gonna give you the undersuit,” she said. “Been sweating in it the past day, and even I wouldn’t do that to you.”
“Your sweat just smells like beeswax,” Jace muttered.
“Well…wait, that’s a good thing?”
He shrugged, then turned the backpack toward Kinfild. “You want me to carry anything?”
“I’d rather keep my old bones protected,” said Kinfild. “I am not as spry as you two.”
“Understood.” Jace zipped the backpack closed and heaved it up onto his back. It was heavy, but not as bad as he’d been expecting. “Let’s get moving.”
They still had kobolds to deal with, and they couldn’t linger too long. Jace tightened the backpack’s straps and set off along the edge of the room.