…to be both executor of the plan, and its conscience. As the only one who understands it, I need to anchor the goal in the memories of when I still felt as others do.
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“Alright boys, time to wake up!” Mia’s voice broke through a dream that left only an afterimage of steel and a deep apprehension in Matt. He opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling, listening to the others wake up and letting their talk wash over him for a moment. Eventually, they broke out the food, and as they passed the bread around, Matt sat up and accepted a piece. “So, what’s up for today?” he asked.
After returning from their expedition outside the cave, they had spent some time cleaning and filling up the pantry by the kitchen with the food they had purchased. On the way back, they had taken the time to cut down wood for torches, and even found a deer that they had managed to hunt down and drag back to the cave. Afterwards, they had spent the night in the chamber with the patterned ceiling. There was something about the place which seemed to comfort them all, and it was also warmer than the large common room.
Pete spoke up first. “We should go back out and get—”
“We should get stronger,” Vic interrupted, talking and chewing at the same time. “I don’t know what you were about to say, Pete, but it was probably something boring. I’ve had enough for now with running errands. Let’s head back up to the room with the dungeon–perhaps we can find more skill crystals, or even get levels? We need to fight. We need to get stronger.”
Matt had been hoping to sit down with Mia to learn the last letters and practice his reading, but he agreed with Vic. On the walk back through the woods yesterday, he had continued to think about the future that was now a possibility, and what it would demand of them. He is right. We need to get stronger, and soon. The room with the dungeon was promising, and maybe he could learn something new about the threads. At the back of his mind, there was a niggling sensation that time had started running. It would just be a matter of time before the secret of this cave was no longer a secret. And at some point, the time they had to prepare would run out.
After finishing their breakfast, Pete and Vic went into the training hall to look over the weapons there, to see if there was anything that they could use. Vic still favoured his long dagger, but picked up a short and broad sword for backup. Pete spent some time testing different weapons before finally deciding on a large sword unlike anything Matt had ever seen before: the long sword featured a section in the middle of the blade that was thicker and unsharpened which Pete grabbed with two hands, one hand held the grip normally, whilst one hand clenched around the middle part of the sword. Pete approached one of the training dummies, and after falling into a balanced stance, he took a wide swing that cut through the air, hitting the dummy so wooden chips went flying. In his next action, Pete pulled it back, and Matt noted how the double grip meant that he could now use the sword almost like a spear. The sword stuck in the dummy with a solid chunk, and Pete was grinning like a fool.
“This is… good,” Pete turned towards them. “It’s beautiful,” he said, bringing the weapon closer to a torch. “I’ve never seen anything like it. The craftsmanship…” Pete’s voice trailed off as he admired the blade. “And this way of holding it… I’ve heard about it, from–from someone I used to know–it’s supposed to make it strong both for close and mid range combat.”
Standing around and watching Pete, they hadn’t noticed Mia, who was standing in the doorway. “Enough playing with your sword. Come on guys, let’s go,” she said, leading the way out of the common room and up the stairs to the room with the dungeon.
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Walking into the room with the two large empty stone gateways, Matt noticed instantly that something was different. The stone in the centre of the doorway to the left that had led them into the Initiate’s Dungeon was no longer glowing, instead a similar stone set into the doorway to the right was glowing softly with threads weaving densely together. He walked over to the doorway, looking up towards the arched lintel.
“Class Alignment Dungeon,” Matt read, and the talking behind him fell quiet.
Pete looked back at her, eyebrows furrowed. “Class alignment? What is that?”
Thor’s voice was low and deep. “It is from the writing that appears when we trigger the symbol. Where it says, Class: not determined. Maybe…” A huge grin lit up the tall man’s face. “Maybe this means we will get a class?”
“Finally!” Vic stepped forward. “That must be important. I do not know what a class is, but I want one.”
“Maybe we should—” Pete began, but before he had time to finish, Vic reached out towards the glowing stone. The thin threads reached out to his hand, and with a flash of light, a portal appeared again in the middle of the empty doorway.
Pete had drawn his sword. “Matt, next to me.” He looked back at the others. “Follow closely behind, and be ready in case we step right into a fight. All ready?”
Matt readied his spear as they all nodded, and Pete gestured with his sword for them to follow. Stepping through the shimmering portal, Matt’s grip on his spear tightened.
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The portal led them to the top of a green hill, with grassy slopes extending gently downwards in all directions. Far below there was a valley, and Matt could see a green forest extending as far as he could see. Above them, the sun was shining from a blue sky.
“More writing? What’s up with all this fucking text?” Matt turned back to see Vic’s eyebrows raised.
Mia answered him distractedly while looking around. “I think that… Something has changed in our minds after we looked at the pattern. Information is suddenly appearing out of nowhere, and not just when we trigger the pattern.”
“I cannot see anything,” Matt said. “What does it say?”
“The same as outside. Class Alignment Dungeon,” she answered. “Then on the next line it says, Survival Mission.”
“What does that mean?” Vic asked.
Mia looked at him. “That, apparently, we have a mission. To survive?”
“Survive? That’s not at all, like, ominous.” Vic said. “I vote we succeed.”
Silently agreeing with that sentiment, Matt wondered again what was different with him. Having information just appear out of thin air sounded both frightening and intriguing. To ward off the wave of envy that he felt coming on, he turned his attention to the surrounding vista. At first glance, it looked like a beautiful summer day overlooking an evergreen forest, and he heard the sounds of birds far away. As he kept looking, however, a vague sense of unease crawled slowly up on him. His brain was trying to tell him something, and at first he couldn’t see what it was, but as he bent down to look closer at the grass, he realised what was different. The threads… There are no threads here. The realisation struck him with a small shiver. It was as if the place was dead, everything just a thin shell of reality. And if there are no threads–
“What was that?” Pete exclaimed, and Matt turned towards him.
“What?”
“More text just appeared. It said… Survive for 60 minutes.”
“Fucking weird place,” Vic kept pacing around the top of the hill, lips pursed, as he tried to watch the treeline below. “So, do we just stay here, or what?”
Matt was trying to think, but the strangeness of everything kept interrupting his thoughts. A moment ago, they were inside the dark and mysterious cave. Now they were standing on a hill in the middle of nowhere, in a place that was empty of the strange energy that now seemed to be everywhere. Something about this seems artificial. Like someone has put it together… Created this place. It was probably the same in the boglin dungeon, except I didn’t pay attention to the lack of threads there. That should mean… He grabbed his spear harder, bringing it up in front of himself as he looked around, joining Vic in trying to peer down the hill.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“What? Did you see something?” Pete asked, his own head swivelling to look for danger.
“No, it’s just something about this place–” Matt began, when Pete interrupted him, pointing down the hill with his sword.
“There. Someone is approaching!”
“Huh,” Matt said when he saw the figures coming out of the treeline. Three men, dressed in light leather armour and each holding a spear. Those three are human, so maybe it isn’t like the boglin cave. “Maybe they know what’s going on here?” Perhaps there is another entrance to this place? And they came from there?
“I wouldn’t count on it,” Mia said. “Be ready.”
The three strangers were making their way up the slope towards them, and a shiver ran down Matt’s back. There is something wrong with them. He looked at Pete, Thor, Vic and Mia and even in the absence of threads, he could see a vague shimmering glow surrounding them when he focused. The men approaching them had no such glow, seeming almost invisible. Or dead.
But still they held spears. Sharp spears. As he lowered his weight to his back foot and fell into the first guard position, he heard a whetstone. It seems like I have to become a soldier, after all.
“Oy!” Pete shouted. “Who are you? Stop there!”
Pete’s shout was met with silence and no other reaction as the strange men continued their relentless approach, getting closer step by step. It was as if they hadn’t heard Pete.
Pete stepped up next to Matt. “Thor, take my left. Vic, stay back and protect Mia.”
Matt held his spear ready, pointing downwards, breath coming faster and faster. What was going on here? Why were these strangers just walking towards them?
“Let us give them one more chance to stop,” Thor said in a low voice, before shouting out. “Stop!” His voice boomed across the grassy slope, but had no effect as the men just kept coming. “They had their chance. I guess it is time to find out what Boiling Earth does, then?”
From the corner of his eye, Matt watched Thor extending his arm towards the strangers. Thin, red threads appeared around the hand, drawing symbols in the air as they weaved an intricate pattern. Spinning faster and faster, the threads increased in density until they were a red blur coalescing around Thor’s hand. Thor’s gaze held on the approaching men, and Matt saw him blink as he released the red power, and the threads burst out towards the ground under one of the men.
It started as a low rumble below the ground, quickly increasing in power until the grass split and rocks and stones burst up, the ground bubbling like boiling water. Oh fuck, Matt thought, as a sharp smell of sulphur and a hard scream of pain permeated the air when the man’s legs sunk into the boiling earth. An area ten feet in diameter became a lake of heated soil, and as Matt watched, the man kept sinking lower, screaming and screaming.
“Oh, my… fuck!” Vic exclaimed, as the spell suddenly ceased. From one moment to the next, the ground cooled and became solid rock again. Only the man’s head and shoulders remained above the ground, and the screams of pain stopped a moment later as the head fell backwards. “Oh fuck, Thor. That was–”
Thor was standing there with a blank look, hand still extended, when they were suddenly out of time. Matt gulped, trying to recover his wits, as the other two men rushed towards them, spears held out.
One of them went for Matt, and he let his training take over as he took a step back at the same time as he parried the spearpoint coming towards him. He tried to disengage the parry to follow through with a riposte, but the other man had already stepped back to maintain distance. Pete took a step to the side to split the attackers up, and Matt’s opponent was already back on the attack. Matt feigned a retreat with a half step back, meeting the thrusting spear with a forward step while he held the leading part of the other man’s spear firm with the strong part of his own spear in a high line parry. Rushing in, he kicked the other man in his leading knee as he disengaged his spear, letting the point dip under the other man’s weapon and thrust the point towards his thigh, feeling the point score a deep wound.
Just as he thought he had the initiative, overconfidence got the better of him. As he leaped forward to finish the man, his enemy swung his spear in a tight arc, catching Matt on the side of his knee. With a yelp of pain, Matt fell to the ground, rolling away as he tried to orient himself. He felt more than he saw the man pressing his advantage, coming towards him quickly. On instinct, he rolled onto his back just as a sharp heat erupted from his side. Reaching down to touch the burning pain, his fingers came back covered in sticky blood. Looking up, he saw his enemy pulling his arm back to thrust with his spear again, just as Vic appeared behind the man. With a quick motion, Vic leaned in and drew his dagger across the man’s throat, showering Matt with hot, sticky blood.
“Hold still!” Mia shouted as she ran up from behind, throwing herself to the ground next to him and holding her hand out to his side. Thin, green threads wrapped around the wound, and Matt could see them reaching into him. In awed fascination, he watched the tissue begin to regrow and knit together. The sight was accompanied by an itching, stinging sensation, which was soon replaced by a strange absence of anything. A moment later, she moved her hand to his knee, repairing the damage and taking away the pain.
“Thanks,” Matt said to Mia, as Vic reached down to help him back to his feet, the words sounding inadequate. He had seen enough battles to know that a wound like that would normally require weeks of rest, and at worst, kill him with an infection in days. That is just so weird, Matt was thinking. And oh, so powerful.
She nodded back to him before stepping back and resuming her vigil over the battlefield. A sound of clashing metal made Matt spin around, just in time to see Pete pulling his arm back for a swing with his sword. Gray, steely blue threads wrapped around his arm, gathering dense energy as Pete triggered Cleave. His opponent raised the spear to block the strike, but could do nothing to stop the skill. The sword cut through the shaft of the spear as if it was not there, striking the man’s shoulder and continuing across the man’s torso, only stopping when it met the man’s hip. The stranger did not even have time to scream before he was dead.
With a squelch, Pete pulled out his sword, tearing out the man’s guts. His face was white as he looked back at Matt, his voice wavering. “This skill… It is just too– Too powerful. Killing is not supposed to be this–”
“Don’t be an idiot, Pete,” Vic interrupted and looked like was about to say something more. Instead, he breathed in and swallowed, before saying, “Did you see any notifications? I gained a level!”
“Me too,” Mia said, as both Pete and Thor nodded in agreement.
“A level? What does that do?” Matt asked. “Is it like a skill?”
“No, it is not the same… From a quick look,” Thor answered, his hand scratching his chin, “it has increased both my Health and Essence. And I have five Free Attribute Points to distribute.”
“Distribute how?”
“Let me test something.” Thor looked away into the distance for a moment before continuing. “We should probably plan this better, but to test it, I assigned points into Intelligence, Perception, Physical Resistance, Magical Resistance and Stamina. The point that I put into Intelligence has increased my Essence again, and Perception did something to my Essence Regeneration. Stamina increased the Health. I can’t see that anything changed when I increased the resistances, though.”
“Focus on it,” Mia muttered, her own eyes looking into the distance. “Focus your mind on the writing. Physical Resistance strengthens your skin, making your body harder to damage. Magical Resistance makes it more difficult to damage you with magical skills.”
“Oh,” Thor said. “Why didn’t we try that before? That is–”
“That is awesome, that is what it is!” Vic grinned, his own eyes looking at something far away. “This is what we need. More strength, more skills, more power!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Matt saw Thor nodding. “Yes. But think about what this means.” The tall, thin man looked back at them. “We always knew we needed to keep this place a secret, but now we absolutely must protect and defend this place. If the nobles had this power…”
“Oh, come on, guys!” Vic was wiping his dagger on a corpse. “Fuck that. You and Pete just keep dragging us down. Like… they don’t, alright. They don’t have this power. We do, and we are going to fuck them up!”
Matt watched Pete and Thor exchanging glances, their expressions unreadable. Matt didn’t need to ask them what they were thinking, as he felt some of the same conflicting emotions. Excitement, fear at the responsibilities they were assuming, and a growing hunger for more power. Matt only wished how he could fix whatever was wrong with him, so he could get the same skills and levels. His proficiency with the spear was growing, but that wasn’t enough. He needed to see the impact that these attributes would have. How much stronger and faster would they be? At what point would his own normal skill and strength just not be enough, and his contribution would cease to matter? A small dagger of jealousy was quickly replaced by ambition–ambition for their group to obtain enough power to protect what they were building.
“And here we go again!” Vic’s grin was vicious as he pointed down the slope. This time, only two people were approaching. A man and a woman, both wearing leather armour and carrying swords, walking slowly up the grassy slope towards them. Steadily, inevitably, not even looking at them.