I told Cuby more about work, and I told her about Earth’s wildlife—birds especially, which she seemed to adore. I told her about arguments that I’d had with my ex girlfriend, watching her as she sat wide-eyed and tried to reverse-engineer, out of everything I was saying, some real model of how a human relationship worked. I told her a bit of the plot of Star Wars, and this took almost an hour—she found the idea of a primitive humanity imagining magic in space to be infinitely fascinating.
She let me lead the entirety of the conversation, and I was grateful. The thing was, I didn’t want to tell her about my family or childhood, though I could tell that she’d find human childhood engrossing: she reiterated to me when I was telling her about human camping that nobody except the telorians were ever allowed around taxin el children—and the telorians were the second-ranked (or third-ranked, counting humans) member of their hierarchy. But I knew that if I started explaining anything involving the people closest to me, I’d get depressed and homesick, so I left off.
What I really wanted was more illusion spells and some real time. Even with just Immobile Illusion, I bet that I could create some fairly realistic little models of all the things I was talking about—really give her a taste of life on Earth.
We kept tabs on Haroshi’s group—carefully. The main force was working its way around the base of the mountain slowly but surely. We saw a few scouts get sent out from the main group, perhaps looking for entrances to the dungeon.
The scouts worried me. It seemed like their best idea would be to station watchmen at various positions on the mountain to try and spot us approaching in the night. We saw a few of the scouts return, but not all of them—and since we were going to be sneaking around later, it wouldn’t do if there were watchmen posted around the mountain. Even if we spotted them first, even if I killed them fast enough that they couldn’t raise a warning, their disappearance would still tip them off.
I’d finished my Hex of Chains card by the time the enemy made camp. They didn’t choose the slopes, instead making a set of five clusters of tents that were spread along the road that led to Veleth’s Rest. We perched in the crevice and looked out at them. I scowled.
“You don’t want to attack,” Cuby said.
“It’s too obvious,” I said. “They spread their tents out, so they’ve learned their lesson. They’re anticipating us in that way—why make their camp in the lowest elevation possible, accessible from not only Mount Mirrak but also the mountains that ring it on all sides, except to bait us?
“All right,” said Cuby. “We won’t attack. Do you want to leave now, or wait a while?”
“Wait,” I said. “If we go to sleep and wake up in five or six hours, that will be perfect. They’ll still be out, and we’ll have time to move about and see what we can see. I just don’t have anything I can use as an alarm.”
“I’ll get you up in five and a half hours, then,” Cuby said as if it were that simple. “My biological clock is still working fine, even in this body.”
“Even through sleep?” I asked.
“Trust me,” she said. “Unconsciousness is stranger than the dormant half of a cycle that I’m used to, but I can wake up when I want to.”
“All right,” I said.
I set some Rune Traps with Auditory Illusions at both ends of the cave, alarms to trigger just in case—I made them sound like howling wolves so that if an animal triggered them there would be a chance that Haroshi wouldn’t realize it was us. I also emptied out our iron-bound chest to aide in the construction of our trap, creating several stacks of monster parts and a few pieces of hellfire-forged iron before looting the empty chest into my inventory. Then we bedded down, one entrance to our cave covered by dirt and another covered by Cuby’s illusion.
“Is there a trick to falling asleep?” Cuby asked me in a whisper after I’d dismissed my Hardlight Tether chandelier.
“No,” I said. “Not really. You can try deep breaths, counting, thinking pleasant things.”
“Tomorrow we’re going to kill those two and take their cards, and their stuff, and then finish the dungeon.”
“There,” I said. “Pleasant things.”
Maybe I had been more tired than I realized, or maybe the game simply made it easier, but I drifted off in only a few minutes.
I didn’t dream. I woke with Cuby shaking my shoulder, and sat up to rub my eyes. “Something wrong?”
“No,” she said. “It’s time to go is all.”
I yawned. Once again, I felt like maybe a half hour had passed. When we were done with this dungeon, I was going to need to catch up on sleep somewhere. “All right, I’m awake.” I stood and started stretching.
“Do you have the second rank of the Sneaking skill?” Cuby asked.
“No,” I said. “I was saving my General Skill Points for another rank of Hardy. I have 7.”
“But Sneaking.”
“I know, I know,” I said, bringing up my menu. I bought the skill for 6 points. “Good idea.”
“Ready?” Cuby asked.
“Let’s go.”
We spent a good few minutes searching the mountainside from our position on the crevice, then snuck out into the night air. The place where we’d left the road was high overhead, but we knew the general direction that the road took down the mountain, so we headed that way, using the mind link to pick out the easiest way to travel while still gaining altitude—steep climbing would make too much noise. My robes were gray and hers were black, and we kept our hoods up while in view of Haroshi’s camp in the hopes that this would make us harder to spot. I used my magical sense to try and pinpoint any hidden enemies, but found none.
Still: Cuby, I said through thought speech. I forgot about the mage’s magic sense. If we test their true sight capabilities, it needs to be with something far enough out of their way that any mages they have won’t sense the illusion.
Okay, she said. Maybe the base of the mountain, where the road starts? Or just out where anyone from their camp can see it?
Yeah, I said, worrying. If they didn’t travel the path we wanted them to, we were in for a rough day.
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We found the road again in short order, climbing a small rock face and then hauling ourselves over the rim to perch on a narrow ledge overlooking the road below. Then we agreed to wait at least ten minutes, watching for any patrols.
As we waited, I spoke: there was something strange about the boss we fought, Axxonni.
Huh?
The monsters are constantly missing me, now, I said. And that makes sense: a player has as much Precision as their level, plus 5, plus whatever’s on their weapon and whatever comes from abilities. That puts these monsters somewhere over 15, but under 20—provided their weapons grant what ours grant. I’ve got 36 Defense Rating with your blessing, and the tooltip says that doubling an attacker’s Precision gives the attacker a 25% hit rate.
Okay.
So why did the boss only miss me once, after I’d put on a Psychic Parasite?
High Precision? Cuby asked.
I don’t think he critically hit me even once, I said. And my Moment of Mastery and Evasive Insights worked fine, though the Moment gives a lot more Defense Rating….
Hmm, Cuby said, a strange thing to hear in thought speech. Either he has high Precision and you just got some strange odds, or it takes an even bigger difference to make a boss miss you. Either way—it’s too bad about the two chosen. You could probably deal a lot of damage to just a flock of level 9s once your Reactive Armor triggers.
Oh, I said. Reactive Armor might have made the difference with the boss, actually. I don’t pay attention to it when we play, but its armor bonus declines a lot after the initial spike when I take damage.
Cuby looked over at me and raised her eyebrows. 36 wasn’t counting the spike? Without abilities those players below us have less than a twenty-five percent chance of hitting you, Alatar.
Yeah, I said, grinning. That was our plan, wasn’t it?
Cuby scowled. I want to be a chosen.
Patience.
We waited a while longer, with no patrols appearing, until Cuby said: we should go.
Okay, I said. But you know what we didn’t try?
What?
Praying. Maybe our angel helpers could give us a hand, here.
Cuby was silent a moment before saying: We’ll try that if we have time.
I smiled, and we moved down onto the road, keeping our eyes out for any scouts that Haroshi or Nerien might have posted, but also for the right place to set up the chest trap.
The trap—if it was called a trap—was a complicated affair. We both came to the conclusion that I probably should have kept the card myself by the end of it—Cuby had to cast a spell with a verse requirement for 5 seconds, and this was fairly loud. We decided not to put it at the base of the mountain so as not to have her casting so close to his camp, but place it as far up the road as we could—which had the added benefit of still being in their way even if they climbed half the mountain to join the road, as we had.
From there, we had to scout a location with a high enough slope on one side that we could use—it had to be out of range of the magic sense, but still visible. I still had most of the chain that I’d used to make my Hex of Chains card, and so tied this around the treasure chest, then hung the chest over the side of a rock outcrop that jutted out far enough so that the chest would be clearly visible.
Then, as I used a silently-cast Auditory Illusion to mimic the strange cry of some unknown nocturnal animal that we’d heard twice that night—maybe just a coyote—Cuby cast the illusion to cover the chest with the image of the rock outcrop, extended.
Perfect, I said, admiring her work. When they passed beneath it, it would be utterly unremarkable to anyone who couldn’t see through the illusion—and what was better, the slopes behind us were rife with the crags and outcrop that characterized the upper mountain. They’d be a good place to watch the road and keep hidden.
I’m glad you like it! Cuby said, sounding utterly sincere. Now let’s look for a place we can start a rockslide.
Or hide some runes, I said. I should test Destructive Wave. That, or we could rune the top of the stairs to throw people off with Telekinetic Hammer.
The fall damage won’t be as good as normal Alatar damage.
Heh. Destructive Wave’s base spellcraft is 8—I can supercharge two of them as runes. Base cast 4 seconds, which means 2.6 for me right now—I can invest you with another Supercharged. No chance of Huge spell, though—it has an absurd spellcraft modifier.
We were talking as we moved up the road, walking silently and keeping our ears out for anything approaching. I kept looking for convenient objects to place the runes behind, as if expecting billboards or two-dimensional wooden bushes, or something. There were a few crevices where the rocks had pulled apart, little openings just narrow enough for a person to squeeze in sidelong. I could place a rune trap inside one of these and it wouldn’t be very visible—but it also wasn’t close to the center of the road. The Destructive Wave might not hit anyone, or only a few people.
We’re getting fairly high, Cuby said. I think this is where we first encountered Axxonni.
I think you’re right. We need to find a spot soon.
Lets get up on the rim, said Cuby. I want to be able to leave, fast, in case the demons spot us.
Knowing that Heightened Hearing existed, Cuby and I were so careful climbing up onto the slope beside the road that it took us almost fifteen minutes. Once there, we moved slowly, quietly, eyes searching. There had to be some place that stood out, that was a better place than just any place.
But soon after we’d started searching, Cuby got my attention. Look, she said, and through the mind link she shared me her view from where she’d perched at the edge of steep rise around the road. Most of Haroshi’s camp sites were out of view, but the one that she could see was clearly bustling with activity—lights were moving about in the darkness.
They’re moving out, I said grimly. We need to find a spot soon.
Why not here? Cuby asked.
I looked around at the unremarkable stretch of road. The fog from the omnipresent gray cloud was growing thicker, and a light coat of snow covered everything, perhaps doomed to melt in the daylight.
An idea came to me. Just a little further, I said.
We crept further, and Cuby kept looking back at where Haroshi’s camp was until the last cluster of tents faded out of sight. The enemy players made no attempt at hiding their passage, their weapons bright points of light in the dark below as they moved toward the mountain.
Curiously, we still hadn’t run into any demons by the time I found our spot: heavy fog and a heavier blanket of snow, which was falling in thick flakes now. There was a steep staircase ahead, and the ledge that led to the outward slopes of the mountain was tall enough for me to clear with a Mighty Leap.
This is good enough, I said, materializing the infernal iron shield that I’d used back in the cave. Let’s get to work and set the ambush.