Ability Selection
Choose a new spell to learn. You may replace this spell with any other spell you are eligible to learn by consuming its Spell Card or using a Spell Book.
Spell - Immobile Illusion
Cost: 12 Mana + 3 Mana / Minute
Cast Time: 4.1 Seconds
Range: 5 Meters
Effect: Immobile Illusion at 1*Level Illusion Strength
This spell conjures an illusion which can occupy a cube of up to 2.5 meters on a side. The illusion is an image only, and those who interact with it and discover that it is an illusion can thereafter see through it without penalty, though they will still be aware of its existence.
Spell - Elemental Aegis
Cost: 12 Mana + 12 Mana / Hour
Cast Time: 8.1 Seconds
Range: 5 Meters
Effect: 6 Resistance
This spell imbues its target with added resistance of your choice: Fire, Frost, Lightning, or Nature. It provides half as much resistance to every other one of these resistances as it does to your primary choice.
While you may have this spell active on multiple targets, you must choose the same element for all of them.
I looked at the two of them, having trouble deciding. So far we hadn’t seen a lot of common damage types among the demons—the imp and the beamlings had done magefire damage. Still, I felt like Elemental Aegis would be very strong against anything it applied to.
On the other hand… an illusion spell was no joke, I was sure of it. I kept thinking of how many times Road Runner has tricked Wile E. Coyote into running into a cliff that looked like a tunnel, or running off a cliff by mistake. True, Road Runner’s magic was far more powerful than my own—but everyone has to start somewhere, and the demons we’d met thus far were hardly very wily. They should prove easy to trick.
Besides… the thing that made wizards cool was their ability to work a situation, to gather the most information, to beguile and deceive, and then to engage in direct confrontation only when they had every advantage. In the immortal words of Mithrandir: all warfare something something deception.
I might have got that quote a little wrong.
I showed my abilities to Cuby, just to be sure. “I want to take the illusion,” I said.
She grinned. “Do it. The element thing is strong, I think, but remember that most elemental attacks will be one part magic, physical, or psychic anyway—you’re not going to apply all that resistance anyway. And the illusion will probably work on everything we meet for a while.”
“Good,” I said, happy to have the second opinion. Thing was, any experience I had with RPGs was as likely to work against me as for me, lulling me into a false sense of good judgment even though this was a game I’d never played.
Cuby had gotten a choice between a bleeding strike and a blinding one—she’d chosen the blind.
We traveled more under the direction of Kontor, killing a few more jawsprays. “We’re getting closer,” he said after a time. Then he pointed. “That’s an ore outcropping, if either of you care.”
I followed his hand. Jutting out of a sheet of scree that blanketed one sheer slope was a dark rock that to my eye looked like any other. We approached it and I noticed a few discolorations in the stone, blue in color. I tagged it:
Derunite Ore Outcropping
No sooner had I done this than I got a system message:
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Quest Unlocked: Mining and Smithing
Objective: Mine some ore, then smelt it into an ingot
Reward: Two random common blacksmithing schematic cards.
I accepted the quest—why not, I had a slot open—but had no pickaxe to mine it with, and no mining skill. We went on empty-handed, though Cuby and I picked up some more great machine scraps as we went.
“Oromar’s Bastion is built atop a mine,” Kontor said as we passed into the shadow of a mountain. “It’s impossible to see from below, but there’s a lift that one can take from the central mine, along with some shafts that lead to stairways. There—” he pointed ahead at a dark hole leading into the cliffs. “That’s the most-used entrance.”
Then he stopped, grumbled as he looked around. “I have to say, I expected more people here. Townsfolk, I mean—the season initialized today, why isn’t anyone down here to guide players?”
I eyed the hole, barely tall enough for me to enter without ducking. “Maybe the initialization spawned more monsters than you’re used to,” I said. “The mines could be dangerous.”
Kontor gave a sober nod. “That seems most likely. We should be careful.”
I lit the torch that I’d got from the dead cultist, and we proceeded inside, each on the lookout for danger.
The mine opened up considerably once we were inside, the small cave soon becoming a large gallery with marks from tools all over the walls. We searched the first cave, found nothing of interest, then moved on into a passage that followed a set of rails which I had no doubt serviced mine carts. Many passages and branches opened up before us, but Kontor always knew which way to go.
Still, I grew more and more uneasy as we traveled. We found no monsters, or even signs of struggle. Then, as we searched another cave that was much like the first, a voice called out from ahead of us.
“You there! Ahead! Telit Elar.”
We stopped and looked—a pair of torches had come into view at the other end of the room, along with a hovering blue light that I’d guessed was summoned by magic. These lights fell upon the silhouettes of four figures, and as they stepped closer I tagged the man who’d spoken:
Haroshi – Level 3 – Chosen
Beside me, Cuby had gone rigid. “Get ready to run,” she whispered in a quick, panicked tone.
I wasn’t much better than her—I could barely contain my recognition at that word beside his name. Chosen. It was almost certainly an indicator that he’d used one of the cards that I had in my inventory.
“Be at ease,” he said in a calm, authoritative voice. “We mean you no harm—my group isn’t interested in offensive PvP.”
“Great!” Cuby said, her voice a little higher than normal. “Good. A fight would really cost a lot on both sides, if you ask me.”
I looked over the rest of Haroshi’s group:
Morene - Level 4
Careb - Level 4
Hasunin - Level 4
Haroshi himself was human, but Morene was a stern-looking elf woman, Careb was a male gnome currently seeming to size up Cuby, and Hasunin was a seven-foot tall alligator man of some kind. Lizardfolk—had to be.
“Of course it would,” Haroshi said dryly. “Regardless, my group is complete for now,” he said. “And while I wish you no ill-will, I have no interest in splitting the encounters ahead of us between my group and anyone else’s. I ask that you find another path through the mountain to the central lift—I’m told there are many.”
I might have objected a few moments earlier—it seemed rude to me to claim all the enemies on the shortest path to town as your own—but even if Cuby hadn’t already warned me, I could tell just by her tone and body language that we were in deadly peril.
After all, there were four of them. They could kill us on a whim, and had cause to.
“Certainly!” Cuby said, flashing him a false smile. “We have a guide already—we’ll be able to find out way.”
“Our path is straight to the lift from here,” said Haroshi. “Thank you for agreeing not to cross it. Now: unless you have something worth trading, we’ll be on our way.”
“Nope!” Cuby said quickly. “We’re still on our starter gear.”
“Of course,” said Haroshi, eyes flicking down to the athame at her waist. “Best of luck to both of you. Perhaps we’ll meet again in town.”
“That sounds lovely!” Cuby said quickly. “Goodbye!”
She led Kontor and I out of the cave, her feet moving so fast that I had to hurry to follow.
“What was that about?” I asked once we were out of earshot.
Cuby took a few deep, calming breaths, then shot me a glare. Didn’t you hear him say talit elar?” she asked.
I didn’t know how to respond. I’d heard him, but I didn’t understand the significance. I could say as much—but would my apparent malfunction be enough to avoid suspicions?”
“Sorry,” I said. “No. Must have missed it.”
“Well he said it,” she said. She drew in a deep breath, exhaled. “A Taxin El! This fast!” She shook her head. “But not just any Taxin El—that was one of the Chosen.”