Serilla bought me a potion that slowly raised my health back up to full. It took around an hour, but eventually I felt good as new. The redness on my palm was still visible, but there was no lasting damage.
While we were drinking together, Serilla taught me the legend of Pentamorel as part of her ‘reasons to not destroy the city’ speech.
“You see Morels are a common mushroom that grow in the region and they just so happen to be used in plenty of potions. They are a huge part of Pentamorel’s economy, but not so many people realise that Morel is actually the gobbledegook word for any kind of mushroom. Pentamorel isn’t named after five morels, but after the five mushroom princes.”
“Hang on,” I said. “What’s gobbledegook? Don’t goblins speak common?”
“They do, but they didn’t always,” said Serilla. “Ancient goblins spoke gobbledegook. Common is the combination of the different languages spoken by the ancient armies that were brought together by the Mushroom Princes.”
“And that’s why the councillors wear those silly mushroom hats?” I asked.
“I don’t know where that tradition comes from, but probably,” said Serilla. “The five mushroom princes were each generals of different armies that were at war with each other. Some legends say that the armies were the Humans, Goblins, Orcs, Dwarves, and Gnomes, but I don’t think anyone really thinks it was that simplistic. Besides there are other legends that also include the Giants and the Elves.
“Anyway, the war had been waging between these ancient armies for centuries, but then one day, five young princes who were enemies since birth met together in a hidden valley away from the battle. None of them spoke the same language, so any hope for a treaty seemed impossible. Even so, the five strangers laid down their weapons and learned to communicate.
“They envisioned a city where all the races could live together in peace and as they dreamed of this city, they looked around and saw they were sitting in a grove of mushrooms. They swore to bring peace and when they left the valley to return to their armies, they did so as the five mushroom princes. So when you say you plan to destroy the city, you have to think of the history you will be destroying with it.” Serilla nodded wisely, then stretched and lay back with her arms folded behind her head.
“That’s the dumbest story I’ve ever heard,” I said.
Serilla jolted up in surprise. “No it isn’t.”
“It’s boring, dumb, and obviously wrong,” I said. “For starters, they clearly didn’t learn to communicate with each other by happenstance, they must have eaten Ether mushrooms. So they would have been able to communicate just fine. What they wouldn’t have been able to do is fight though, because Ether Blend makes you lethargic. They didn’t lay down their weapons, they collapsed. They were probably too lethargic to fight, so the only alternative they had was to talk and find some common ground.”
“There’s a mushroom that does that?” Serilla asked.
“Yeah, I can take you to where they grow,” I said. “Once we get Riffy back, that is.”
“You promise?” Serilla asked.
“Ye—” I caught myself. “Nice try. I think I’m going to lay off on the promises for a while. But if you help me destroy Pentamorel, I’ll definitely show you… or Riffy will anyway, I’m not sure I remember the route back there.”
“That’s interesting about the mushrooms. You’re not lying are you?” she asked.
“No, I’m serious. The Mushroom Princes were clearly a bunch of frauds who were too embarrassed to admit they ate some dodgy mushrooms and found themselves defenceless in the woods. They were probably tricked into being there at the same time to begin with.”
Serilla frowned as she considered. “Well, no one knows exactly what happened. But what’s important is that all the races came together and ended the war. The five mushroom princes represent the lasting peace.”
“Whatever,” I said. “That piece of shit city didn’t have much peace to spare for me.”
I pushed myself up to my feet. “Come on, we don’t have long before my duel. I need to find another two stat increases, so I can level up and get the perk that lets me heal when I sleep.”
“Yeah, that’s a good one,” said Serilla.
“And I need a weapon.”
“About that…” Serilla twirled her hair in her hand. “I actually have an idea.”
----------
Serilla led me along a small muddy trail through the rolling meadows up to a small stream beneath a row of trees. We crossed the stream on a fallen tree trunk that had grown wilder in death than ever in life with the thick coat of moss and weeds that sprouted from every rotten branch. As we carefully trod on the small patches of dry wood between the slimy moss clumps, small creatures: toads, river rats, and pygmy griffons darted out of small dens within the hollow logs.
“The pygmy griffons are flightless because they are so greedy. They would be perfectly capable of flying if they didn’t eat so much,” Serilla said as she leapt onto the fern-covered bank.
A pygmy griffon squawked in terror as she landed beside it and snatched it up by its chicken-clawed front legs. Serilla carefully avoided the scratches of the cat-like hind legs as she twirled the pygmy griffon around and grappled it into a hug.
The pygmy griffon clucked and hissed, then settled into purring suspiciously as Serilla rubbed her face up against the fluffy fur on the side of its neck and head.
I stepped carefully over the slimy patches as I wound my way between the upended branches of the fallen tree. It was a small distance to cross the stream, but my baby legs were slow and my red onesie provided little in the way of grip or mobility.
“How long is this going to take?” I asked.
“Not much longer,” said Serilla.
“I have to be back to the tavern by noon or everyone will think I’m a coward.”
“Don’t worry. We will definitely be back in time.”
“This better be worth it. We’re wasting time that could be better spent training my dodge or parry. If you throw a few attacks at me, I could at least practice the basics.”
“You should save your energy,” said Serilla. “You’ll need it.”
“Why what’s waiting for us?” I asked as I finally dropped from the fallen trunk onto solid ground.
Serilla released the pygmy griffon and it ran, squawking and flapping, through the dense ferns. I watched its tail poking above the leaves as it zigged and zagged away. Serilla looked thoughtful. She reached out a hand towards me.
“Let me carry you through here. It will be faster and I can explain without having to worry about losing you in the weeds.”
I didn’t enjoy being carried around like a baby, but the sooner we got to our destination, the sooner I could work towards levelling up. She rested me on her hip and began to hike through the ferns.
“So you understand a little about XP right?” she asked. “Like you already know about the perks at level 1. What else do you know?”
“I know about turning gold into XP and XP into gold. I know that every level requires more XP than the last. I know that some gear can be used to store XP and that they can even be upgraded to give you better skills and buffs,” I said.
“Well, yeah.” Serilla nodded. “That’s all true, but do you know how the special gear works? Do you know where it comes from?”
“Someone makes it,” I said. “Like some blacksmith in the The Frontier or whatever?”
“Yes, and no,” Serilla said. “Anyone can craft some armour or a weapon, but the truly unique ones, the kind that can be upgraded, need a story. You can’t just hammer some iron and expect to forge a graded weapon, you need to find a source of natural power.”
Serilla smirked at the alert expression I must have been showing. She enjoyed having an attentive audience. “So take Morgon for example, he was a famous adventurer many years ago. He was practically unrivalled in his prime, but now, he isn’t even ranked in the top 10 of The Gladium. Why do you think that is?”
“Other people came along who were stronger,” I said.
“Kind of,” said Serilla. “He set up his tavern and he’s living out his final years in relative peace. The XP that he stored up from years of adventuring is slowly leaking away and returning to the world. Morgon is in his declining years, but he is still much too high level for his surroundings. He’s like a mighty dragon that takes up residence in a lonely mountain and slowly the mountain becomes filled with monsters and rare artefacts simply because of his presence.
“XP doesn’t just change living creatures, it can change the inanimate,” said Serilla. “We are approaching a place where a great deal of XP and energy was released. It has mostly bled back into the surroundings, but the remains of some of that core power is still present and it is that original source that you should try to harvest.”
“If you already knew about this place, why didn’t you harvest it for yourself?” I asked.
Serilla’s lips tightened. “I can’t.”
I could tell that she was uncomfortable. She doesn’t want to say what it is.
“Why can’t you?” I asked anyway.
Serilla squinted at me, then started laughing. “You little brat.”
“What?”
“Don’t act innocent. Pretending you can’t take a hint.”
“Come on,” I said. “You can tell me. Is it dangerous? Isn’t this something I should know?”
“You have nothing to worry about,” she said. “I just can’t harvest a weapon this way. Not from here.” She gestured ahead.
Stolen novel; please report.
The ground was cracked and the dense weeds that had surrounded us grew sparse. Small bubbling pools filled the cracks and crater-like holes in the rocky dirt.
Serilla placed me on the ground where the surface changed. “Head to the center, that’s where the energy will be greatest.”
“What will I find?” I asked.
“I’m not entirely sure. You’ll have to figure it out yourself. But there is power here.”
“You’re not coming?”
Serilla walked to the nearest tree and climbed up into the branches. “I’ll watch from here.”
“But I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” I said.
“You’ll figure it out. You’re a smart baby,” she stretched out on the branch and crossed her arms behind her head. “Just don’t take too long.”
I glanced up at the sun. It was drawing closer to the zenith. I only had a few hours until my destined duel with Morgon. I turned back to the bubbling pools and began to weave between the pillars of rising steam.
The smaller pools gave way to large ponds and as I stared into the clear liquid, I noticed a strange reflective quality to the bubbles that rose to the surface and popped. These weren’t air bubbles rising from the heat, but shiny metallic bubbles.
I realised it wasn’t just pools of water, these pools were oily and metallic. They released a subtle sulphuric smell that made my eyes sting. I wondered how dangerous it might be to breath this stuff, but I had to trust Serilla. She’d had plenty of chances to kill me before now. The truth was, I did trust her. Trusting people has worked so well in the past…
At the center of the pools was the largest crater of all. It was filled with the bubbling liquid and this one was the densest of all. The oily water inside was filled with streaks of metal bubbles that churned up to the surface, where it cooled and sunk back below in spirally strings of silver.
I looked around for some kind of weapon, but saw nothing. I’m going to have to get in the water.
I had no idea how hot the pools were, but the ground was find to walk on so I wasn’t too concerned. I crouched next to the central pond and slowly reached out with my pinky finger.
The water was hot, but not scorchingly so. It stung, but it didn’t sear my flesh or anything. I tugged at my onesie and managed to wriggle out of it. I stepped in and my legs turned pink.
Unmarked Quest Complete: Bathe in the Quicksilver Springs.
Gain: 50xp. Temporary Buff: Form Quicksilver.
Optional Boss awakened.
Warning: You cannot leave Boss Arena until Boss is defeated or all combatants have been eliminated.
Buff: Form Quicksilver. Duration: 23:59:59.
Enables the Create Element: Quicksilver ability.
LEVEL UP +1
NULL, Human, Level One
New Classes available.
New Perk available.
“Oh,” I said. I wanted to gain two more stats before levelling up… now I’m not optimized! On the other hand, though… A new form element buff. Awesome! It’s a shame the buff’s only temporary though.
Select Class?
“Hey AIAI,” I said. “Don’t worry. I hadn’t forgotten about you. One question before you tell me what my class options are… I just awakened an optional boss, didn’t I?”
Confirmed.
“Any hints as to what’s waiting for me?”
Prediction: Death imminent.
Great. “Wanna bet?”
… Negative. Select Class?
“What are my options?”
Listing available Classes: Acolyte, Cadet, Junior Combatant, Junior Farmer, Junior Merchant, Junior Occultist, Junior Smith, Juvenile Delinquent, Lordling, & Urchin.
Most are the same as last time, but with two added ones… “What's an Acolyte?”
Acolyte provides: +5 Magic, +1 Mind, Gain Skill: Surge, Gain Upgraded Skill: Dancing Orbs, 25 gold & a Practitioner’s Robe.
“So it’s a squishy wizard starter pack…”
Select Class?
“What about the Junior Occultist?”
Junior Occultist provides: +2 Magic, +1 Constitution, +1 Dexterity, +1 Perception, +1 Mind, Gain Skill: Basic Illusion, Gain Skill: Basic Ward, 25 gold & a Commoner’s outfit.
“I need something that raises my Mind stat,” I said. “Why can’t I be a Child Prodigy again?”
Preferred Class selection was removed and Spawn Difficulty was increased in balance with the exception granted upon death.
“Yeah, well that sucks,” I said. “I want more skills slots.”
Select Class?
"Give me better options."
Request denied. Select Class?
I didn’t want to throw myself too heavily into the squishy wizard build, but acolyte did have some interesting benefits. If I remembered correctly Cadet had a great overall spread of stats and it even came with some Frontier gear, which would be powerful... if I ever wore it. Which I never would because fuck The Frontier.
Junior Occultist was interesting. It was more balanced than Acolyte, but also less combat oriented. I didn’t have time to take the support magic path. I needed to find something to hit Morgon with and before that I need to deal with whatever this optional Boss is going to be.
“Remind me what Juvenile Delinquent was?”
Juvenile Delinquent provides: +5 Brutality, +1 Constitution, Gain upgraded Skill: Blood Frenzy, Gain Skill: Kill Sprint, 10 gold & a simple garb.
Yeah, that’s a barbarian alright. The skills sounded great if I could find somewhere to grind against some really low-level enemies, but against a boss those skills would be useless. Besides with only a Mind stat of 1, I could only select 1 skill at a time.
That was the same problem with the Urchin class. I could definitely put a huge boost to Dexterity to good use, but without the improved Mind stat, I would be losing out on perks every level and I would be suffering along with only one skill slot.
Select Class?
“Screw it. I need the Mind increase and I prefer the sound of those skills to the ones that come with the Occultist. So I choose Acolyte as my class.”
Confirmed. Thanks for choosing your class. NULL instantiation begins now. Goodbye.
----------
Stat Increase: Magic +5, Mind +1.
Unlocked Skill: Surge.
Unlocked Upgraded Skill: Dancing Orbs.
25 Gold added to Pocket Book.
Item Equipped: Practitioner’s Robe.
Requires an empty equipment slot (2/5).
Dark blue cloth robe shawl hangs loosely from the shoulders and droops down to the knees, provides:
+10% Magic recovery speed.
I opened my Pocket Book and immediately gain the two Perks I could afford to unlock.
Sleep Tight (1).
Regain Health while resting.
Party Up (1).
Invite Entities to your Party and share in XP.
Then I closed my Pocket Book and began searching for the threat in the form of the Awakened Boss.
Last time I had fought a boss the area had become encased in a shimmering wall that changed the outside environment into some kind of outer-space background. This time the background was of a lightning strikes on a red canyon rock surface with a jet black skyline.
The ground around me darkened as the sunlight vanished. I waited for another lightning strike to shed some light and then began moving away from the big pool in the center and towards the perimeter. If I was a boss, I would definitely chill in the big pool.
A tall figure appeared a few paces in front of me. I threw my had up to cast Smokescreen, then hesitated as thunderclap sounded and a streak of light revealed the pale, terror struck face of Serilla.
“Null is that you?” she asked.
“Yes of course,” I said, then remembered that I’d grown. “I levelled up.”
“What’s happening?” she whispered.
“A boss woke up when I stepped into the pool. Did you not know that would happen?”
“No. A boss? Holy shit.” She grabbed my hand and started pulling me back the way she had came. “We need to get out of here.”
“It’s a boss,” I said. “We can’t leave until it’s defeated. How did you get in here?”
“I saw the weird bubble thing appear and came looking for you. It’s fine we can just walk through it. Follow me.” She continued to drag me forward as more lightning strikes crashed down around the perimeter leaving an electric twang, like the devil’s guitar string, echoing through the arena in their wake.
With Serilla guiding my feet, I focused instead on my skills and quickly read Surge and Dancing Orbs.
Surge (Magic).
Overloads your elemental output at the cost of Stamina.
Dancing Orbs (Constitution & Magic).
Once per rest, summon a whirl of orbs that will protect you from attacks.
The good news was that since Dancing Orbs was a daily skill, I could unselect it after casting it each day and be able to use another skill. The bad news was that I had no idea what the resource costs of these Skills were and this was not a good time to be testing things.
I selected Dancing Orbs for my unused Skillslot and felt a tickling sensation like a cold necklace had just been placed around my neck. I focused on it and my Mana dipped down to empty as three purple ovals burst up from my skin. They were palm sized, flat, and slightly translucent. They hovered around my shoulders, slowly rotating. They were pretty cool, but I didn’t have time to admire them.
Something was thrashing through the water behind us. I could hear it getting closer between thunderclaps and electric thwangs.
I switched out Dancing Orbs and breathed a sigh of relief then the purple orbs continued to swish around me. I selected Surge and again read the description. “Overloads your elemental output at the cost of Stamina. What does that mean?”
“What?” said Serilla. “Are you reading skills right now?”
“I’m going to need them!”
“Not now. We need to get out of here.” She bent down and scooped me up and ran between two bubbling pools and right into the shimmering dome that surrounded the arena.
I whacked against the impassable surface and fell down into the dust as Serilla bounced back and staggered over the edge of one of the pools. She screamed and threw herself down beside me.
“We can’t leave,” I said.
“I don’t understand. I just came through there.”
“You can enter, but you can’t get out until the boss is defeated. How do you not know this?”
She wasn’t listening to me. “I don’t understand. Morgon comes up here to bathe all the time. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe he’s too high level for the boss to activate?” I guessed.
“Morgon will find us,” she said. “We should just stick to the edges and stay away from the pools.”
“Calm down,” I said, reaching for her arm. “What’s the matter with you? You can handle this.”
She startled when I touched her. She looked crazed. “It’s quicksilver!”
Realisation dawned on me. Serilla’s a race of undead. Silver kills undead. Quicksilver is an alloy form of silver. Usually it isn’t as dangerous as pure silver, but clearly it was still harmful to Serilla. Or at least she believed it was.
I could see the whites of her eyes as they darted around searching for enemies.
She brought me to this place despite how dangerous it is for her?
The splashing of whatever was coming for us stopped momentarily as a shadow jumped through the air from one pool to another.
There was a great crash, then the repetitive thrashing continued.
Serilla scooted back over the dusty ground to press her back against the dome. She was gasping like a fish out of water. The static electricity and the humidity turned her hair into distraught cloud and her typically pale undead cheeks turned ashen grey with horror as a great serpentine head stretched out of the pool before us.
It was a gigantic eel with sharp silver teeth, tiny yellow eyes, and a cluster of squirming metal tentacle whiskers poking out of its face.
Lightning struck, shaking the ground.
The eel locked its eyes onto us, opened its meter long mouth, and screeched.
Serilla screamed and jumped to her feet.
I threw up my hand and cast Smokescreen, then remembered that my Mana hadn’t regenerated enough.
A small cloud of smoke burst out of my palm and was instantly evaporated by the boss’s screech.
Serilla grabbed me and leapt aside as the snakelike jaw snapped down in the space we had just been.
I felt a charge go through Serilla and I glanced up at her. Her eyes had gone black all the way through and her hair was standing on ends. She was using some kind of skill, but I had no idea what it did. The Boss’s eyes looked unfocused, they were no longer locked onto us. I followed their gaze and saw a vague shadowy shape that resembled Serilla running around the other side of the pool.
The Boss swiped at the illusion and it disappeared as smoke and dust.
Serilla and I crouched low as we crept between pools trying to keep out of the Boss’s line of sight.
Once my mana had recovered a little, I tried to use my Form Quicksilver ability to create the blades I had used with my For Rust, but whereas the rust had flowed into my hands like a flaky, crusty putty, the quicksilver flowed like water. It moved so much faster, it was almost impossible to control.
Where the rust had formed into a small dagger with a rounded sharped edge, the quicksilver became a shapeless lump with a thin loop at the end. A moment after it formed, it collapsed like water splashing down to the ground and dissipating.
Quicksilver wasn’t the same as rust, they behaved differently, they formed differently. I needed to find a different method to attack. The quicksilver was fast, sleek, and light. My natural impulse was to hurl it like a spear and just see how sharp I could make it. For a single point of Mana, I could create a pencil a quicksilver, that collapsed into a puddle after a second.
The Eel screeched with joy as a lightning strike alighted the arena and the outlines of Serilla and I were brought into stark relief. It flopped down below the surface of the water and I watched as the spines along its back flatted with the thrust of its powerful body driving through the water towards us. Its tail bust from the water as its head plunged deep below the surface. No doubt, it was using tunnels between the pools to circle us. This is bad.
Serilla was bouncing from foot to foot in anxious dread. She was muttering something to herself. “What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?”
“Serilla,” I said. “Tell me about your Skills?”
“What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?”
I stamped on her foot and she stopped pacing to scowl at me long enough that I could make eye contact. I inwardly sighed in preparation for what I was about to say.
“Serilla, this is berry berry serious. I need you to tell me what skills you have.”
Her face lit up with a goofy grin. “I got you, BBK.”
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