The group traveled, but this time I kept my awareness outward. Low-level monsters at base level or on the First Rank were subdued, then a student came to kill it. They gained levels and Hamilton didn't miss a single opportunity to brag about his Transcendental status.
Barbara's turn came and I found we had a dilemma. You see, delving in the Labyrinth was supposed to be about gaining Exp and leveling up, that's what everyone was doing. Then, why in the Goddess' name was Barbara making such a request from me?
I was too but I knew better than to keep arguing. Besides, I could get Barbara all the Exp she ever wanted, at least until the second rank, by crafting.
Her staff allowed her to cast from the crystals embedded on it, but took damage instead of using charges. Over time, such damage would regenerate on its own but it could be sped up with MP. Or Energy, in my case.
She touched her pendant and brought the staff out, still in its oak disguise. It didn't matter because it worked just the same. I reached out with a ribbon and started to engrave the diagram on the ruby atop the crown, appearing as just a piece of glass.
"Just a moment, guys. I'm going to test a new spell," she said to the Adventurers, unsure of it.
"Holding the monster in place is hard," one of the satyr women remarked bitterly as she tapped the ground with a hoof, showing how impatient she was.
If she was going to be a jerk to Barbara, I would pay back by showing her how necessary she was. I opened up my cover and spat a glob of glue at the monster.
> > Level 35 Razor Centipede (insectoid)
It was a centipede a foot thick and three meters long with metallic blades for legs. Its highest Attribute was Dexterity and it could move ridiculously fast. I'm talking about savannah hunting cats fast. It would then jump and twist itself in the air as its body slammed its prey, becoming a whirlwind of sharp blades flailing around everywhere. If it scored a good hit, it would latch on the target and squeeze, slicing the poor victim into ribbons. Not even metallic armor could help someone with that deadly embrace as the monster's main body was basically corded strands of muscle a foot thick. Its meat was almost inedible as the muscle fibers were as tough as steel cable. Its sinew was valuable because it could be used for several things. Especially if you could kill it without cutting the body, a good specimen could fetch almost a gold coin.
And a gold coin was more than enough to feed, clothe, and shelter a family of four for a year (of sixteen months, or five hundred days) in comfortable (for a peasant) conditions. Winter included.
The glue hit the critter and splashed all over it and around to a radius of two meters. It almost hit the rude satyr lady.
"There," I said out loud, moving my cover like a mouth. "You can release your bind on the critter. I doubt he can escape my glue."
The satyr coughed as she choked on her own saliva in surprise while the centaur leader just stared at me. "The book talked!" She gasped when she recovered her wits.
"I saw it too. What is that creature?" Atrion asked.
"This is Nethe, and he's my familiar. The professors at the Academy said he's a lesser species of vegetarian mimic that only copies household items," she declared our official version for my species.
The centipede squirmed in the viscous glue but he was going nowhere. He would need a Strength score of more than 250 to break free from the glue. Heck, not even I could escape my own glue. If I wasn't immune to it, I mean.
I ignored the wary Adventurers and finished drawing the diagram. "There, it's done," I said. "Now, Barbara, this is a difficult one. Try to cast it and take your time. The centipede won't go anywhere."
Barbara brought the staff's crown next to her face and stared at the diagram. "Matriarch's wisdom, Nethe. This is a tough one. I never saw so many lines in a Quantifier."
In Marlowe's theory of interchangeable spell circles, the Quantifier was the part that told the magic how it should work. As a quick refresher, the first part, Essence, determined the Element or School of magic, the Motivator gave the magic purpose, whether offense, healing, utility or otherwise, then Shape to give it form, and finally the Quantifier to set all the little tidbits.
"Let me see it," Mrs. Blatherwick said as she approached Barbara. She never took an eye off of the centipede and so did the Adventurers. The girl offered her the staff and she looked at it with a critical eye. "Very complex, quite a challenge. The runes are so tiny I can't read all of them. Are you sure this spell won't backfire, little book?"
"Even if it does, it won't harm anyone," I replied, startling the satyr women again.
"This is going to take more than two dozen thousand MP, at least," she insisted. If it backfires, it will be quite the explosion.
"You don't worry. The diagram has fail-safes in it and what you're seeing will expand into another circle. You know about overlaid diagrams, right?"
She dropped her composure for a moment and nodded, "That's third-year material," the teacher remarked.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
The other students became very interested. Barbara was suffering under all the attention.
"Doesn't hurt to start training now. I am sure Barbara is up to the task. Trust me, I'm a grimoire."
She stared at me for a while, then waved her hand, "Everyone back off. I'm going to isolate Miss Ambrose, her knowledgeable familiar, and the monster. {Force Dome}!"
A barrier of Force magic sprung around us. She precharged it with a lot of MP, probably unwilling to receive the kick in the nuts that were a massive impact on a barrier you had to hold. A waste.
"I trust you Nethe. I'm trusting you a LOT right now!" She held her staff and then focused on the spell-crystal.
I could see her magic entering the staff and traveling up through the diamond shaft guided by the living silk. It went straight to the ruby square holding the diagram and made it light up with an eerie red light. The diagram flashed with white and then the circle grew from the small square into something the size of the halfling girl.
The magical circle started to spin, each section alternating as each went either clockwise or counterclockwise. Then a second circle appeared in front of it, and a third.
She hummed in agreement but I could tell it was taking a lot of mental focus to hold it. We needed to wait for the circle to power up entirely. Barbara's lack of control meant the MP was badly used and a few were wasted, causing aural and visual artifacts to appear like sparkles, eerie noises, and colorful flashing lights.
The third diagram circle charged and started to spin blindingly fast. Then Barbara yelled, "{M.I.T.H. Matriarch's Crystal Claws}!"
From the first circle, a dozen crescent blades of crystal sprouted as if it was a gateway to elsewhere. They caught the light artifacts of the excess magic and spread a kaleidoscope of light all around. It was mesmerizing. Then they shot through the second circle, gaining the homing and splitting abilities of a M.I.T.H. spell. In the third circle, they became razor sharp and imbued with a massive chance to deliver a critical hit. The blades flew past the diagram and arced in every direction as they spread out like a flower of parabolic trajectories connecting the staff to the centipede. The crystals shattered and split into more blades, now hundreds of them. In what seemed like an eternity but only took a fraction of a second in real life, the homing blades struck the centipede all along its body, pushing past the thick glue covering the monster and embedding themselves on it after they went through the monster's body.
In a burst of poetic justice, the Razor Centipede experienced a little bit of its own medicine. These were Barbara's notifications.
> > Your spell slashed Razor Centipede for 4,363,632 HP of damage (Base 24 [2d12+10] x1,000 MITH x2,22 Willpower x3,9 Skill x1,5 Earth Magic x2 Crystal Spec x4 Boost x1.75 critical (averaged).
>
> > For killing level 35 Razor Centipede, you gained 224,304 Exp (no multipliers).
>
> > You gained 12 points of [Spellcaster] Proficiency.
>
> > Spellcaster [ 157 ].
Barbara retched. She wobbled and set the staff on the stone floor to support her. "I'm dizzy."
she said with mental huffs.
The dome dropped and everyone shared the smell of sliced centipede guts.
"Girl, that was some serious destruction," Melinda Bennets, the [Arcane Squire], cheered as she approached to help guide Barbara away from the carnage.
I jumped out of my dust cover and scuttled on tiny folded paper legs to the pool of glue and monster bits. I created some lobster pincers and mantis scythes as I used [Harvester] on the centipede chunks.
"I thought you said the book didn't eat meat," Atrion told the teacher.
"It is not taking the meat. Look, it is harvesting the bladed legs and the strips of sinew. Is that the Core?" Mrs. Blatherwick asked.
"First-rank monster Cores are worth just a few silver coins. Nobody wants centipede cores," the centaur shrugged.
"May I keep it, then?" I asked from atop the giant dollop of glue.
"Knock yourself out, little grimoire," Atrion agreed with a chortle.
I added the Razor Centipede to my summons roster. A single origami centipede would cost me 94k Energy. Or I could summon 80 of them for 843k, leaving me with enough Energy to keep them for two minutes. I believed it would be more than enough to kill whatever stood in the way unless it required bigger guns.
*
----------------------------------------
*
The vast featureless tunnels and caverns of the Labyrinth placed a huge strain on the surface species. People who loved the sun, people who loved the open sky and the vast valleys and the distant horizon had none of that down here. Only tunnels, monsters, darkness, shadows, gloom, and the threat of being forever lost down here. The large tunnels, with ceilings sometimes ten meters above one's head, the irregular walls, all that made people feel small, unwelcome, and threatened. Dark corners loomed anywhere you looked, and bright lights killed people's night vision, making the shadows even darker.
It was no wonder that any tension between the explorers would be blown out of proportion. That's what I found after I finished dismantling the centipede, I stored the strips of sinew and cleaned myself. That's when I found two of the satyr women arguing with Barbara and Mrs. Blatherwick.
"You must compensate us," the Adventurer demanded. "Your little magical experiment ruined a gold piece worth of materials."
> > Level 64 female satyr [Quartermaster]
I wondered if that's what Prince Percival felt when he ditched his escort. Even two thousand years later, these greedy guides are more concerned with lining their pockets than doing the job they were paid to do.
"That's not what our contract says, Mrs. Corippe. Article 37 states that you can keep the carcasses in whatever condition they are left after the apprentices kill the monster," our chaperone rebutted. "And your leader tacitly allowed the mimic to harvest the carcass."
Barbara crouched to get me. She held me gently between her arms.
The two older women were still bickering.
They talked and finally agreed to take the sinew from me.
> Razor Centipede Sinew Scraps.
>
> * Superb quality.
> * Value 44 silver coins.
"Netherbane, may I ask you one question?" Mrs. Blatherwick said after the satyr [Quartermaster] went back to her group.
I wrote on my cover,
"Yes, you may ask. I cannot guarantee I'll be able to give an answer."
"That spell you taught Miss Ambrose, where did you learn it?"
"I'm a grimoire. I had it written on me. As to who wrote it on me, I cannot answer."
I had to lock away, literally, the urge to brag about how the spell was made by Haru, and how awesome she was.