Mikella came out of her tent in the early morning, her face scrunching up in this whatever god-forsaken hour it is in this deathtrap known as the biodome. She just saw Cloud and Zeke return again from their trip to ‘study’ the environment.
But she knew for certain that they were bullshitting. She just didn’t know why.
Zeke tells her everything, right down to the detail where it would make most people across this fantasy world incredibly uncomfortable. For them, it was life or death, so no matter how personal sharing stats or skills are, the two always shared everything. Even when it came to mundane topics, they would talk about everything.
But she knew deep inside that Zeke was keeping some sort of secret. The look of his face that looked like it went through hell showed it all. While Cloud and Zeke are healers and can heal any damage they somehow accrued, Mikella went through the ringer countless of times to see the added effect the body has when they get hurt and healed way too many times. It didn’t show on their faces, but it showed in their slight body movements.
While he looked fresh as a daisy, there was an exhaustion in his steps, and she could sense that there was a bundle of excited energy stirring within his arm and leg movements. Honestly, she might just be guessing the latter part, but she can’t help but shake off this feeling that something was amiss.
Still, if even Cloud was joining Zeke for something that was clearly not studying shit, it shouldn’t be so dangerous to worry about them. At least Val didn’t look like she was worrying about them, and she should have better senses than Mikella does.
All she could do is just greet him normally, keeping her irritation in check as they traveled once again. For the past five days, the tiny team managed to travel a good length across from their camp site. The biodome was just too damn big to put it into words.
If she has to compare the biodome, it was like trying to get through the amazon rainforest in their old world. Considering that the rainforest is about a million square miles big, she found it baffling that such a place like this could exist under the small town of Eve Glade.
Being able to cover 20% of the map is actually pretty incredible for their team, but then again they have powerful scouts (including herself) traveling at a fast speed, which would definitely trump any explorer in her old world due to how superhuman they were.
But still, it was arrogant to believe they could cover all this in any short amount of time. And the reason why it was taking them so long in the first place was due to the powerful monsters that lived in this place. Even worse, since it’s a biodome that’s actually ‘alive’, monsters would continue to spawn, making it just as much dangerous for folks trying to clear the biodome since they have to constantly kill monsters.
But for the people of this world, this is the greatest place to gain enough levels to break through a stage. It was no wonder why everyone was ecstatic to have a biodome so close to the town despite how small it was.
Eventually they came across a wide expanse of rocky hills, and this time rather than facing bisons, they faced giant humanoid golems. As one would expect in a rocky field, they were specialized in the earth element, creating massive spikes of rocks and boulders showering like rain thrown at them by these heavy bastards.
This time, just as she feared, her lightning attunement didn’t make much headway to their heavy defenses. If anything, it felt like the rocky surfaces of their bodies were redirecting her lightning away from their cores, their weaknesses to take them out. However, Piker managed to take them out with ease, freezing them in place and just absolutely destroying them. This was basically his preferred fighting ground, but Piker refused to stay while they still had to find the tower.
She found Piker to be too serious, but she respected that now that she learned more about him. He always had a pike up his ass, but that didn’t mean he shared everything with his adoptive father. Even now, when the monsters are preferable for him to gain some easy levels, he would rather get the mission over with.
Of course, that didn’t mean that the golems were easy pickings. They still packed a wallop, something that even brought Zeke’s barrier down a peg or two. She also noticed the strain on Zeke’s face when his barriers seem to fail almost instantly against their powerful attacks.
He doesn’t say anything, but she knew it was hitting him hard as a barrier mage. She kept reminding him that he was way more useful than just his barriers, and just being there was good enough for her, but it felt like her words were just going in one ear and out the other.
In the end, there wasn’t much she could do. She wasn’t much better, considering she felt useless whenever something that’s not combat-oriented comes around. Still, she’s the type to get over that with hard work and extra training, proving herself invaluable when the time to fight occurs.
They eventually passed over the rocky hill section and found themselves embroiled in another heavy forest. This time, the trees were the ones made out of crystals, and the leaves were crystalline to the point that if some would fall on them, they would get crushed, then afterwards get cut up since the leaves were as sharp as blades. Zeke had to put up a barrier over their heads as they walked, considering that crystal monkeys were going around being a menace and causing the leaves to fall just like that.
They specialized in movements using wind magic, and that got them to be incredibly annoying to fight against. In the end, Myra and Cloud had to burn everything down to the ground to finally kill them all. At this point, XP gain for everyone in the party was totally pointless. The monkeys were too little in number, but each one was such a pain to deal with. The energy they gave as experience was just too pitiful as well.
But what they dropped upon their deaths was interesting. As if to make up for their entire experience fighting the little bastards, they have a chance of dropping some good stuff. One of them was actually a skill book known as Tail Slice, a skill that allows users to supposedly attack from behind as though they had a tail.
It was a strange skill, and honestly no matter how useful the skill book was, she didn’t really like this skill. It just seemed off to her. Not to mention she’s the sort to focus on combat with her weapons. Even if she could fight from behind with an imaginary tail, she can’t imagine using it effectively as well as with her weapons. Something about synergy came to mind when she thought about learning the skill herself.
Zeke also shared her dislike for the skill. He is a mage, and this skill felt like a physical attack. As everyone got excited over the skill book, it was decided to be put away for later as nobody around them desperately needed them. Myra and Piker were the same, though unlike the otherworlders, they couldn't really learn the skill either way due to the stat requirements they didn’t meet.
Finally, they arrived at a location where they believed to have found the target. Mikella was moving along with Nina’s bird, Piggy. The two often went together, so now they had something of a bond between the two. Even Nina was impressed at how close Mikella was with Piggy, as she was told that Piggy can be a little picky in choosing who to hang with.
Piggy was just a sweetie that happens to have a big appetite, well in tune with his name as Piggy managed to take down one of the bisons that were passing by with Mikella’s help, and she saw the bird eating the damn bison straight through its chest and taking its heart out with its small beak.
That cute bird is fucking metal.
Putting aside the bird that gave no fucks for mercy, Mikella was using her Cloak of Darkness to the utmost limit. Thanks to her Acrobatics advancing, she was matching the top tier speedy bird even when it was covered in its wind magic to make it fly faster. The two managed to cover a lot of ground for miles away, but they made sure to recall the path they took to go back to the party if need be.
But with Mikella there to act as a sort of bodyguard for the bird, they were able to make it with ease. When they eventually passed through the large ravine with a solid jump and a step, they reached the edge of the cliff facing the northern section of the biodome.
It was a massive field filled to the brim with unknown mysteries. Once she got strong enough, she dreamt of grabbing Clara and letting her see this majesty. She wanted to show her that not everything in this world was trying to kill her, even though this biodome was certainly one of those places that would do such a thing.
Clara had seen too many bad things, and Mikella hadn’t made it easier on her since she kept going away on these adventures. She knew in her heart it was the responsible thing to do, but she also kept berating herself for being an irresponsible sister that kept leaving her behind.
However, she was still sure of herself that everything she did and do is for her sake. She may not realize it now, but later in the future, Clara would see just how dangerous this world is. But she hoped to fill her with enough power to make it through. After all, they plan to live in this world, no matter how dangerous this place is.
When she was absorbing the view of it all, putting her life into perspective, Piggy chirped to get her attention. Turning back to it, it faced in another direction with its little head, and Mikella did the same. Her eyes widened after carefully studying the location she was staring at.
It was a large structure, seemingly made of stone and wood, and some parts metal. She didn’t know the make of it, but it looked like a grandiose rampart that reached several miles high into the air fused together with the mountain on the side.
There was an actual mountain, though to call it that officially would be wrong. It was more like a super giant hill that acted like a mountain next to the building. She was sure that the structure was definitely not normal, at least in this fantasy world’s perspective.
“Is that the fortress?” Mikella asked in wonder, only realizing the implications. Rather than finding the tower, they managed to find the fortress needed to clear the quest. While that was good news, she didn’t know how to handle that. Would it even be a good thing to say to her party?
However, another chirp brought her back to her attention again. And this time, she noticed the bird lifting its wing as if to show her something. While kinda marveling at the intelligence of the bird, she looked at where it was pointing and frowned. Deeply.
“You gotta be fucking kidding me…” MIkella groaned, closing her eyes and hoping that she was just too tired to truly understand what she was looking at.
…..
Another hour later, the two scouts returned back to the party. Zeke came over and asked how she was, but he quickly realized something was wrong.
“Mikky? You okay? You look kinda…” Zeke asked, stepping closer but keeping a respectful distance away.
“You will not believe what I found,” Mikella said. Her tone clearly showed her frustration as the others came up behind Zeke. “I have good news and bad news. Good news is–I found the fortress!”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
That got the group to exclaim in surprise. Both Rajin and Nina high-fived at the success, and Myra and Piker nodded to the joy.
“But why do you sound so angry?” Val asked, raising a brow. “It may not be part of the plan, but we at least know where the fortress is.”
“Oh, I haven’t told you the bad news yet,” Mikella remarked with a snark, and while the others looked worried, Zeke apparently read her mind as he shook his head.
“No, no… you can’t be serious,” Zeke said, shaking his head over and over. “Please tell me you’re kidding.”
“Oh, I wish,” Mikella grinned, and there was no hint of joy as she explained. “The bad news is… I also found the tower. The tower merged with the fortress itself.”
The mood turned silent after Mikella’s reveal, and everyone other than Rajin and Nina looked horrified at the result.
Myra paled despite her tanned complexion, and Piker crossed his arms with a scowl on his face. Val and Cloud frowned deeply, and Zacharia remained stoic as usual, but after spending so many days with the man, Mikella could tell that the certain look he had on was a look of contemplation.
“I did see there was a large stone tower right at the right side of the fortress, at least that’s what Piggy saw in his eyes,” Nina mentioned, tilting her head along with Piggy who copied her before lifting itself up into the air to do more general scouting. “But, is it bad? We always planned on raiding the fortress along with the tower. Having them both at the same place would be easier for movement, won’t it?”
“Something tells me that this isn’t a good thing,” Rajin said, clearly noticing the hard-to-swallow atmosphere around the party.
“It’s like spawning in a world where two of the worst locations in the entire game are merged to give us the worst experience possible…” Zeke muttered, his hands on top of his head. “You gotta be fucking kidding me…”
“I said the same thing!” Mikella pointed at him. She was at least having fun relating to Zeke on what game he was talking about. It had something to do with mining and crafting, or something like that.
“H-Hey, doesn’t that mean that the tower’s… Mana thing is making the fortress go crazy too?” Myra mentioned, clearly offering something that was on everyone’s minds. “Wouldn’t that make the boss of the fortress cranky too?”
“Forget cranky, more like borderline monstrous,” Piker added in. “You remember that Red-Maned giant, right? It was the strongest creature in the forest where it should only have Expert ranks and below. In this biodome, where the weakest one we saw was at Journeyman…?”
That immediately got everyone to turn quiet again. This time, Rajin and Nina followed suit. They must have heard the story about the strange Journeyman leader from the forest expedition, and clearly knew something was up.
“In other words, the tower has increased the difficulty of raiding the fortress even further,” Cloud said. Crossing his arms, he tapped his forearm with his finger as he spoke. “Not to mention, if what happened last time was true…”
“That means that if we clear the tower before the fortress,” Mikella interrupted. “It’ll get swallowed up in a void and probably take the fortress with it.”
“What?!” Rajin shouted in surprise, but everyone else followed suit with a grimacing nod.
“What’s gonna happen to the quest if the fortress disappears?” Zeke said, rubbing his chin. “I’d like to be positive and say that it would instantly clear the quest without us having to deal with the boss at all. But I don’t think the system would consider that a success…”
“More likely we’ll be punished by voiding the system’s quest, causing this entire biodome to shatter as a whole. The reason the biodome is so valuable is that once you conquer the biodome, it would give us immediate resources and monsters to kill. However, if the quest is messed with, it might cause the entire biodome to collapse…”
Zacharia said, pressing his lips as he stared at the direction where the tower was supposedly at.
“And on top of that, it would kill us all if we remain here for long,” Val said, shaking her head. “But if we try to clear the fortress…”
The problem resurfaces once again. While Rajin and Nina were clearly confused about the tower’s sudden disappearance, the group had a lengthy discussion on what to do.
In other words, they have two options, and clearly one was the superior one. Either they clear the tower first, and run the risk of the tower suddenly disappearing and taking everything along with it, including the fortress. If that were to happen, it would cause the biodome to collapse should the system consider the quest null and void.
That was the clear inferior option. There were too many risks, and they can’t take the chance of losing the biodome for themselves. The only other option is to run the fortress first, beat the boss, clear the quest, then take on the tower and let it do as it pleases. Even if the tower disappears along with the fortress, the biodome would stay stable as the quest was already finished by that point.
But that would also mean that the monster that they would face at the fortress would be stronger as a result of the tower’s presence. The mana it gives off was otherworldly, and would probably bump the powerful boss to be even more powerful.
One option leaves to possible financial ruin, the other leads to an unpredictable and possible death. Both options sounded bad, but only one option was possible for them.
“...We need to retreat and get the others,” Val said, facing the entire group. “We can’t do this by ourselves anymore. I figured if we found the tower and cleared it, that would be the end. But this is clearly beyond what our group can handle. If it was the tower, that would be fine, but…”
“You’re saying that the tower might produce monsters and flow into the fortress, captain?” Piker added, showing that he didn’t want that to happen on his expression, but Val nodded grimly.
“The situation has evolved into something more complicated,” Cloud said. “I hate to say this, but we might have to cut this off as Val said. Our skills are too general for this group to handle a possible double raid.”
Zacharia remained quiet for a moment, but his hands gripped onto his arms. “The amount of time it would take to retreat would be extended, but you two have a point. Alright, let’s–”
“G-General!” Nina nearly shouted, but cupped her mouth shut as she remained in control, getting everyone to listen as she spoke calmly this time. “I-I see invaders… human invaders in the far distance!”
“What?!”
Cloud shouted, immediately getting everyone on guard. However, her words didn’t comprehend in their heads as that should be impossible.
“Piggy noticed a strange group of humanoids coming out on the other side of the fortress. I’m not sure how they got there… but as far as I know, I haven’t seen any entrance that would lead such a large force there.”
“How many?” Zacharia demanded, his voice hard and stern with a nasty glare. Nina, however, responded with a hesitant tone on the situation rather than from his expression.
“A-Around a hundred, perhaps another dozen or so after that,” Nina said, and even she sounded baffled. “That shouldn’t be… it feels like there are more mages than warriors and scouts. I-I’m sorry. I commanded Piggy to return before he could be spotted. I-I was afraid that they might find him.”
“Don’t be,” Zacharia shook his head. “That way, they won’t find out that we’re here and we notice their approaching.”
Just as Zacharia said, Piggy was flying about as low as possible before slowly drifting over to them. The bird, to Mikella’s surprise, actually landed on Zacharia’s large pauldrons. To even more of a surprise, Zacharia even offered a slight scratch to Piggy’s breast, knowing exactly where Piggy liked to be scratched.
“And it would be a shame to lose such a useful scout,” Zacharia said casually, and Piggy swiftly returned to Nina’s side. She carefully observed his form, making sure that there were no hidden marks or tracks on it that could lead the other invaders to find its presence.
“A hundred invaders… just out of nowhere?” Zeke asked, his eyes desperately searching for a possible answer. “But how?”
“It might be possible that they devised some way to get in here,” Cloud asked. “Knowing this, it’s possible that those invaders…”
“They’re part of Bastion,” Zacharia growled. “They found the biodome.”
…..
When Zyler woke up this morning, he expected his usual daily routine–get out of bed, ignoring the women and the fluff from his shredded pillows, get dressed, and finish his god-forsaken boring work his father forced onto his plate.
But he never expected his father to be so adamantly excited about the seer finally finding some location. Even more surprising, the seer found the vaunted biodome they were searching for.
The past four months, they have been desperately trying to recover the losses from their past invasion, and trying to keep the kingdom’s hounds from sniffing too close to their base. Since then, Zyler has been trying to find other ways to break through his stat blockage, but as usual, to no avail.
But all of a sudden, the entire Bastion army, or at least those who were prepared to tackle the biodome, were taken to a single location where their greatest mages prepared a teleportation circle that would lead them straight there.
The teleportation by itself was risky, requiring a vast amount of expensive materials to create a link to one location from another via the fabric of reality that not even Masters should touch so easily. And for folks that were weaker than Masters, it was courting death with each step within the inbetweens of the physical realm.
While Zyler is the type to not think too heavily and would rather join in without hesitation, especially for a biodome, he still asked his father whether this was wise.
After all, with their current situation, it was possible that they might end up losing too many men to keep up with the Bastion’s demanding resource upkeep.
His father, being more of a pen-pusher than an active fighter, seemed delighted by the news. The seer managed to uncover the precise location of the biodome at his request. Apparently the Federation were getting tired of their lack of fulfilling their orders and gave them some sort of ultimatum.
As for the seer, it wasn’t easy to divine fate and the potential outcomes of the many possible futures. Due to that, their abilities often ask a large price, and it sounded like she didn’t handle the excess information well and turned bed-ridden as a result. Thankfully, it wasn’t fatal, but it didn’t look like she’ll be coming around anytime soon.
As they prepared for the teleportation to go, Zyler was getting more and more pumped up. His muscles were tensing up from his Class taking control, and fangs were beginning to bear from his teeth. The more they got ready, the more he stopped thinking about the ramifications.
Blood and slaughter were the only things left in his mind. When the glow of the teleportation circle began to brighten, he smiled at the idea.
The process was not quick. It was slow, agonizing, and Zyler felt his body becoming strained from the pressed force surrounding him. He also heard many cries of anguish and possible death throes as the force of the teleportation was too strong for the weak-willed.
Eventually the light faded and his eyes finally adjusted. Suddenly seeing something so bright into something dark and humid was definite hell for his senses, but his keen nose finally noticed it.
Prey, and powerful ones at that. He smirked, the sense of fear and tantalizing anguish reaching his nostrils and stroking his adrenaline to take form. His father stood at the front, his muscled hands clasped behind his back as he stared down from the cliff they were at.
“Mmh… interesting, a quest,” His father replied, a small smile appearing on his face. Zyler also noticed the quest to take over the biodome as well as the fortress with the boss. Apparently the folks over at that little town haven't done so yet.
“It’s possible that they haven’t found this location yet,” One of his father’s retainers spoke up, his grumpy wrinkly face scowling at the sight of the massive feast in front of them.
“No, the spies sent word that they have already started combing the lands. But it looks like they were on the other side of this magnificent structure… how glorious.”
Zyler rolled his eyes. His father could go ahead and balk at the sight all he wants. He stepped forward, peering his eyes over at the massive stone structure, along with the giant tower that seemed to dwarf anything else.
There was something… off about that tower. It felt wrong to his senses. His father sure didn’t seem to care, but Zyler kept getting bad vibes from that tower. He didn’t know why, but it was sort of like dealing with some infected mana. No matter what kind of prey he’d find there, it wouldn’t be worth it. Still, his other senses stepped in, telling him that there were also boundless treasures within the tower.
“Father, what should we do?” Zyler asked, crossing his arms while peering at the tower. “The quest said that the fortress is the one we gotta go to, but I got a feeling about that tower…”
“I know, I do too,” Roderick answered, giving the same stare at the tower. “More than likely, it’s a special location of the fortress. Something tells me that we’ll be able to find something decent there. But for now, let’s keep a foothold to this location. Remember, the monsters here are stronger than the average beasts around the city. Let’s keep it in formation!”
Roderick ordered the troops, getting everyone to salute and yell before scattering about like worker ants to satisfy their ruler. Some also went ahead to grab the now useless bodies that couldn’t handle the teleportation and dragged them away to either bury–or perhaps use them as bait for the monsters. Meanwhile, Zyler groaned loudly, enough to perhaps call the other monsters here.
“But I wanna kill!” He groaned, but his father, as always, ignored his whinings.