Jet found herself on a shore near a massive statue. The sun was lowering just behind the enormous figure. A wide lake stretched out behind her. A gigantic stone wall eclipsed the statue and stretched to the horizon.
<<>>
System Message: You have successfully completed the quest: Help the Golem. You have also completed the bonus quest: Misalignment. 2,365 experience points have been assigned.
Congratulations! You have leveled up. You are now level three.
+15 Health
+12 Mana
+9 Stamina
As a result of your level change, the following attributes have been modified.
Attributes
Strength: 10
Constitution: 21
Intelligence: 25
Wisdom: 15
Dexterity: 8
Agility: 8
Charisma: 14
Perception: 21
Luck: 17
<<>>
System Message: Please choose a new spell.
Congratulations on reaching level three. You may now choose a new Spell.
Spell: Close Fissure
Use: Close magical holes or tears in the fabric of the Colossal Machine. Does not work on natural land formations.
Incantation: Un-Cras-Por-Cad
Level: 3
Spell: Slow
Use: Slows any player or NPC for a duration that is equal to the player’s level.
Incantation: In-Por-Bem-Vet
Level: 3
Spell: Sense Evil
Use: Sense evil in physical or sprint form.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Incantation: Por-Em-Cras-Vet
Level: 3
<<>>
Jet picked the Sense Evil spell. She remembered the Close Fissure spell wasn’t as useful with anything under mage level four. She checked her inventory and examined the parchment that the master builder had given her. In all the excitement of leveling, she had forgotten all about it. Jet ran back what the master builder had imparted. The gypsy in the meadow sounded familiar somehow. She remembered reading something at the great library at the Timemaker’s Terrace. She accessed her notes gathered from her brief library visit. Information on fairies, wyverns, builders, and even the constructs was present except for information on gypsies. When she searched for information on the Great Meadow, one journal entry was listed: the Garden of Light.
<<>>
New Quest: Find the Gypsy
Primary Objective: Find the one that will be your guide for restoring the Pillars of Incarnation.
Quest Details: The one you seek goes by many names, but it won’t be easy to find her.
Do you accept?
<<>>
Time to go to the gardens, but how?
Only Magi had the ability to fast travel through the realms. Mages had the ability to travel, but they were limited to scrolls. Magis could open gateways to all realms within the Colossal Machine.
Where am I now?
Jet pulled up an overhead map of her current realm. She recognized the watery shape as the Garden of Light, but the other parts of the zone were different.
I guess I will have to go exploring.
She put in the known coordinates for the Great Meadow. A three-dimensional compass appeared pointing in the direction of a massive wall. From her vantage point, she couldn’t see any way to traverse the wall, but she’d have to get closer to find out. She headed in the direction.
As Jet strode toward the wall, she noticed subtle differences among the vegetation. The closer the plants grew to the wall, the more sickly they became. A sense of foreboding overcame her as she neared the impossibly high and wide barrier. Plants that had the misfortune of touching the wall looked like they got singed by some unseen flame.
The vibrant and lush ground turned to ash as the wall came into contact with the garden. Movement caught the corner of her eye. She thought it was water, but thicker. It certainly moved like liquid from a stream. A noxious, oily smell overwhelmed her. The odor was so pungent that tears came to her eyes. A shrill noise came from the substance.
“Por-Em-Cras-Vet,” Jet commanded.
A red skull and crossbones appeared over the liquid.
Evil awakens!
The tiny, clear crystal at the edge of her novice staff started to glow. It was not as bright as her magi staff, but she knew what it meant: danger was coming. The liquid began to slither from the wall and form a pool that resembled a tar pit. As it widened, she couldn’t place the noxious fumes of a gaseous smell. The goo developed several eyes and an enormous mouth with serrated teeth.
“Prepare thy doom, JetaGirl,” the thing snarled.
Jet took a step back. This creature in the goo resembled a sludgeling, but she’d never known one to speak. The thing bellowed. Drips of goo burned her boots and ignited her robe.
“Argh!”
She stomped on the ground, desperate to extinguish the flames. A red fiery tongue extended from the sludgeling. Another smaller mouth was attached. It was like its tongue was another creature living inside its mouth. It squealed as Jet stepped on the writhing, fleshy mucous membrane.
“In-Por-Cad-Cras,” Jet said.
Her shield enveloped her as she ran back into the garden. Black puddles were forming before her eyes. The sludgelings were multiplying. She would need more than a level one shield to protect her now, she thought. She turned in the only direction that there wasn’t sludgelings—the water.
“In-Por-Ot-Vet.”
She levitated as her flight spell kicked in. Her mana was getting critically low now. Her bar didn’t show percentages, but it looked like around the one-third mark. The flight spell wouldn’t last more than twenty seconds or so. She flew toward the center of the lake. It seemed to go on forever. She cast flight one more time, her mana nearly spent, and she was out of demon salt. She gazed toward the wall. It went on and transcended the water. She suspected that the wall penetrated deep within the lake and into the earth. When her flight spell wore off, she instinctively cast a shield. It bounced on the water like a hamster wheel. Fish that resembled piranhas leaped out of the water and bounced off the shield. She had just enough mana and reagents to cast shield one final time. Her mind raced to think of a way out, but her mind seemed to be stuck.
Why is my mind so foggy?
Mere seconds remained of her shield. She didn’t relish getting her skin flailed off by those hungry fish. That is when she saw it—a small landmass in the middle of the lake. She estimated it was about fifty yards away, and she was out of options. The shield was going down in three…two…then something glorious happened.
<<>>
System Message: You have one mana potion in your inventory. Would you like me to apply it on your behalf?
<<>>
“Yes!” Jet yelled.
Her mana instantly increased a third. She cast flight without thinking of it. An enormous piranha bit into her boot. She kicked it off as she sailed over the water. She didn’t recast her shield because of low mana. She just hoped that another one of those blasted fish wouldn’t take another bite into her. The flight spell fell short of the island. She had to swim the remaining ten feet or so. Several pinpricks coursed throughout her legs. Health was lowering at an alarming rate. She pulled herself up onto the hard flat surface. She batted the remaining biting fish away with her staff and waited to see was in the center of the landmass before she collapsed.