Charomera
The 24th of Elaphebolion
The Year 4631 in the Era of Mortals
Arche crept toward the open door, Tridory extended in front of him and ready to stab at anything that so much as flinched in a threatening manner. Blood pooled out into the passage from somewhere beyond the door. Arche took a deep breath in and noticed he couldn’t smell it. With Owl Vision giving him an extra nine Perception, his total was at twenty-six. He hadn’t been able to stop smelling the mustiness of the Vivarium, but the liquid ahead didn’t have the tell-tale warm, iron scent. Instead, it was acrid and made his nose-hairs curl.
“What is that?” he muttered, sniffing again to get a better sense of it.
He crept forward, then knelt in front of the liquid. He prodded it with two fingers and sniffed again.
“Oil.”
Arche stood and nodded at the rest of the party stacked up behind him, then peered inside the room. The walls were embedded with glowing crystals, each shining a different color, creating a disorienting kaleidoscope of light that illuminated what appeared to be a fairly advanced laboratory.
Cobwebs hung from beakers and graduated cylinders, many of which were cracked or broken. Some larger, more specialized equipment that Arche couldn’t put a name to stood against the walls, broken or deactivated. Arche stepped deeper into the room, frowning as he looked around. Something about the equipment in the room made him pause, tugging at memories he couldn’t quite vocalize. Everything about it felt wrong. The clearly intricate machinations seemed like they had no place in the world above. They were far more advanced than anything he had seen so far, even in Dawnwood.
“Arche?”
He didn’t respond. One of the unbroken beakers had caught his attention. It was filled with a viscous liquid, the color of which was impossible to tell with the haphazard lighting of the room. The beaker was topped with a cork stopper, which Arche made sure to leave in place as he picked it up and squinted at the liquid inside. It was translucent, allowing him to see straight through.
A distorted humanoid face, drawn in a soundless scream, stared back at him.
Arche dropped the beaker with a muffled cry and stumbled backwards. It shattered on the ground, spilling liquid across the floor. Directly across from Arche, somewhat hidden by the lab equipment surrounding it, a large vat held the severed head of a human he had seen distorted through the beaker.
“Malaka,” Tess swore as she also caught sight of the vat. “What is this place?”
“I don’t know.” Odelia eyed the broken equipment littering the room. “The Mana here is twisted. Unnatural.”
“We should leave,” Lyssa said, her voice sounding somewhat strangled. “We are not meant to be here.”
“I agree.” Arche stared at the severed head. “This place is wrong on a visceral level. I’ve got half a mind to burn it down.”
“I don’t think that would be wise, considering where we are,” Abraxios said.
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Still doesn’t feel right to just leave it like this, though. It might not have been used in a while, but I can just imagine what a place like this could do in the wrong hands.”
“Have you seen a room like this before?” Lyssa asked, suddenly interested.
“I don’t know,” Arche replied. “Maybe? Parts of it look familiar, I think. Let’s take a look around before we go. There might be something we can use in here.”
They searched through cabinets and drawers for anything that might prove useful. Odelia found a bottle with a yellow liquid inside, holding it up for the others to look at. No one recognized it until Arche used his Examine skill on it.
Potion of Agility
Rarity: Uncommon
Potency: Weak
Durability: 2 / 2
Weight: 0.5 kilograms
Traits: +10 Agility
Duration: 1 hour
“It’s a potion of agility,” Arche said, sharing the rest of the details with them.
Everyone looked at him with surprise. Lyssa’s look was especially sharp.
“You have apothecary experience?” Tess asked.
“Well, no…” Arche trailed off, immediately uncomfortable under the weight of the attention he was receiving.
“Then you’ve seen one of these before?” Odelia asked as she put the potion into her inventory.
“Not exactly. Look, I can’t really say how I know, I just do.”
Lyssa narrowed her eyes in a way that said, ‘We will discuss this later.’
Arche looked around the room for anything else of note. His eyes landed on a structure that stood from floor to ceiling, the front of which was covered in cracked glass that spiderwebbed throughout. A handle on the front allowed the glass to be lifted upward. Arche walked toward it and lifted the glass. As soon as he did, the whole structure shifted, its supports worn away through years of decay. Inside, a shelf full of beakers and vials slid forward, caught by the glass door Arche was in the process of lifting. The beaker at the front had a label that faced toward him, reading ‘trinitroglykos.’
His memory sparked and fear clenched his stomach.
“Everybody out!”
The Tridory clattered against the ground as Arche used both hands to keep the glass door shut, trying to keep the shelf inside as steady as possible.
“What’s going on?” Lyssa asked, immediately at his side.
“The shelf inside broke. At least one of those beakers contains a highly volatile explosive. I need you to get everyone out of here, now!”
Lyssa turned and made a violent gesture at the rest of them, who began filing quickly out of the room and back into the passageway.
“You too, Lyssa. Get out of here.”
“I’m not leaving you behind, Greenstick.”
“You’re gonna have to. Leave the door open, get them far away, farther than you think you’ll have to go. I’ll follow as soon as I can.”
“That’s insanity. We’ll find some way to reinforce the glass, bind it shut.”
“There isn’t time. The slightest jostle could set this stuff off. It’s a miracle it hasn’t already exploded.”
Lyssa set her jaw.
“Then let me hold the glass. You can get to safety.”
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Being the brave fool is my job,” Arche snapped. “You’re faster than me but I’m more durable. Neither of us can outrun the explosion but I can probably survive it. Even if I’m wounded, my skill helps me heal. And let’s face it, Lyssa, if this goes wrong, they’ll need you a lot more than they’ll need me.”
“Don’t talk like that,” she growled.
The shelf inside the vat shifted slightly and Arche clenched his teeth. Sweat lined his forehead and palms as he struggled to keep the unwieldy structure as steady as he could.
“We don’t have time to argue, Lyssa. Go. Keep them safe. I’ll be right behind you.”
Lyssa hesitated another long moment, her face a battlefield of conflicted emotion. Then she knelt and picked up the Tridory.
“You had better be.”
With that, she was out the door, her footfalls making no sound as she sped over the stone floor out of sight. Arche turned his full attention to the glass door. It had already been damaged before he had touched it. Spiderweb cracks spun outward across its surface. Now, with pressure placed upon it both by him and the shelf, it seemed like it was no longer up to the task. There was an ominous crack as the spiderwebs deepened. Arche let out a silent prayer, hoping the others had managed to get far enough away. He prepared himself for what was next.
Divine Body pushed strength and vitality through his body as he let go of the vat and turned away. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. With a single step, he vaulted over an island countertop in the middle of the room and headed for the door. As he reached it, the glass broke behind him. Forcing himself to move faster, he grabbed the heavy metal door and slammed it shut behind him, bracing himself against it. The explosion hit the door and traveled through it, reverberating into Arche. His Health plummeted, only to shoot back up again, instantly regenerated by his Divine Body skill, but the explosion didn’t stop there. The strength of the blast broke the hinges and sent Arche flying backwards down the hallway, holding onto the heavy door like a massive tower shield against the fireball that raged forth.
Arche’s Mana was nearing zero but he couldn’t deactivate his Divine Body skill. His Health yo-yoed up and down as the regeneration warred against the damage he was taking, trying to keep the force of the explosion from liquifying his organs.
The door hit a wall, sending him flying. He lost his grip, perilous as it had been, and was thrown ahead of the door as it ricocheted off the walls and ceiling, still propelled by the fireball. Arche hit the ground at an angle, bouncing and landing mostly within the confines of a side passage. His head cracked against the stone, dazing him. Arche felt something hit his leg, then his Mana hit zero and everything went dark.
----------------------------------------
“GAH!”
The gasp tore itself from Arche’s throat as consciousness returned.
Pain consumed him. His leg felt as though it had been lit on fire and shoved into a block of ice while twisted backwards at the knee. He tried to sit up and hands immediately landed on his shoulders to restrain him.
“Steady, Arche.”
“Don’t move. Odelia is attempting to repair the damage to your leg.”
Arche saw a glimpse of his leg and found that his earlier assessment was only partially correct. His leg was neither on fire nor on ice, but it was twisted backwards in a nasty break. It also had one or two new joints between his ankle and knee. Bile rose at the back of his throat as he allowed himself to be pushed down. Waves of hot agony flooded through him, robbing him of all his sense except touch and pain. Never in his life had he imagined there could be so much pain. Odelia’s magic brought only moments of reprieve before the pain came roaring back. Something pressed into his mouth and he bit down, muffled screams and sobs tearing out of him.
Arche felt hands on the side of his head, lifting it as something soft was placed beneath it. The hands didn’t leave as another surge of pain caused his entire body to seize. Delirium crept into his mind and the darkness was close behind it. A pair of tear-filled eyes looked down on him from above, but with his swimming vision he couldn’t tell if they were green or brown. Then the sweet release of unconsciousness claimed him.
----------------------------------------
Nausea was the first thing Arche felt when he woke. There was still pain, old friend that it was by that point, but all he wanted to do was empty the contents of his stomach all over the stone floors. The only problem was that as his abdomen and throat flexed, nothing came out. His stomach cramped and he felt burns along his esophagus that explained what the issue was.
He’d already thrown up everything he had and had nothing left to give.
“Hey, you. You’re finally awake.”
Arche grunted, waving off Lyssa’s comment as the world spun beneath him. Steeling himself as best he could, he chanced a look down at his leg. Blood soaked it and the ground around it, but it was at least pointing the proper direction. It was also wrapped in a pulsing, arboreal shroud that looked like the stalk of some gargantuan plant.
He croaked, his throat almost completely dry. “I remember hitting the wall. What happened to my leg?”
“The door hit it as you made the turn. You nearly lost it, but Odelia was able to get to you almost immediately. Drink this.”
Arche felt a waterskin pressed into his hands. He uncorked it and drank deeply, coughing as it wet the irritated tissue in his throat. When he’d drunk as much as he could, he corked it and handed it back. He looked around for the others, then realized they were alone in the passage.
“Where did everybody else go?”
“Scouting for beastmar. The explosion wasn’t exactly quiet. They will be back soon now that you’re awake.”
“How do they know I’m—” Arche stopped as Lyssa put her thumb and finger into her mouth and let forth a brief, shrill whistle that echoed along the stone walls. “Oh. Guess we’re not trying to be quiet anymore.”
“How do you feel?”
“Like I tried to outrun an explosion and lost.”
“I have questions about what happened back there, but they can wait for later. I saw the light you emitted in the tunnel. The others will likely think it was fire from the explosion, so you don’t have to worry. Do you have any lasting injuries?”
Arche checked his vitals and winced.
Health: 373 / 495
75%
Stamina: 311 / 355
88%
Mana: 26 / 190
14%
Barkskin — Level 8: 29:47
Owl Vision — Level 19: 4:20
Nature’s Embrace — Level 24: 2:08
Mana Burnout: 16:29
“Fucking burnout. I’ve got to figure out a way around that. Mana’s gone, Stamina’s good, Health is all right, but I’m not going to be much use for about fifteen minutes.”
His eyes flitted to Nature’s Embrace but he was too tired to pull up the details, assessing it to be whatever Odelia had done to his leg.
“Maybe when we get out of here, Odelia or Abraxios can help you with your Mana issue.”
Lyssa stood and hauled Arche to his feet.
“Why would they be able to help?”
Arche grunted in pain as he shifted his weight onto his leg.
“They’re mages. If anyone has a work-around for Mana Burnout, it would be a mage.”
Arche blinked.
“That’s brilliant.”
One of Lyssa’s ears twitched. “They’re coming.”
Arche nodded in response, quickly going through his notifications for anything important.
Broken Leg
Movement Speed reduced by 75%
He was distinctly aware of that particular debuff, but it was handy to see exactly how that had affected him. Thankfully, the debuff had disappeared after Odelia’s healing.
Divine Body has increased to Level 10.
You have reached the Rank of Novice.
You gain 100 experience.
Experience is held until a Profession is chosen.
Choose a Profession?
Yes
No
Arche dismissed the notification as a shout from down the passage and the sound of fighting echoed back toward them. Lyssa cursed, drawing her bow and nocking an arrow in one fluid motion. Arche leaned heavily against his Tridory, cursing his Mana Burnout. With his regeneration slowed and his head pounding fit to burst, there was no way he’d be able to fight for longer than a minute.
“Stay behind me,” Lyssa ordered.
Her tone brooked no argument. Arche gathered up his bag and waited behind her, listening to the sounds grow louder and louder. In less than a minute, Tess came into view. The Rogue was holding Odelia in her arms and sprinting toward them. Abraxios was not far behind, using his wings to propel his feet down the passageway toward them, twisting occasionally to fire a lightning bolt backwards, the air crackling with static.
“How many?” Lyssa called out over the rising din.
“Too many!” Tess shouted back, voice full of panic. “Run!”