With our wounds healed, rocks smashed, and minds refreshed, we piled into our cart to delve deeper into the cog rail network.
Before we started, though, I gave my lone remaining rock to Aerion, figuring his throwing arm would put the thing to better use than I could. With my adjustments, my Essence sat at a cool 49/60, leaving an emergency buffer of just under 20%.
“By the way, you should have this as well,” I said, handing him my second waterskin.
Aerion hefted the waterskin. “This is waterproof? How did you manage that?”
“I just worked my Blessing’s magic,” I answered. “You were the one who did all the hard work.”
Aerion shook his head furiously. “No, this is truly impressive. You filled it with the Sanctuary’s healing water, yes? This is… an incredible gift,” he said, biting his lip.
“Oh, I’ll be wanting it back, eventually,” I said, knowing those words would ease his guilt. I couldn’t have cared less if he kept it. It cost just 3 Essence, and as fragile as it was, I doubted it’d last until we left the Trial World.
Aerion’s frown vanished, and he nodded. “Regardless, thank you. It’s… very considerate of you.”
Before I could say any more, he turned and pushed a lever, sending the cog cart flying down the rail.
It wasn’t long before a mountain of amber lights appeared in the distance.
“The first castle,” Aerion announced, working the controls to slow us for the next bend.
“Uh, Aerion? That’s… a little large for a castle, don’t you think?”
Castle didn’t do the monstrous structure justice. As we neared, its colossal size became apparent. Each spire of the castle was the size of a highrise tower, with the main castle spire being easily as tall as a skyscraper.
Aerion tilted his head. “They get larger the deeper we go, you know?”
Oh. Great.
I sincerely wished we’d never have to enter one of those things. Even if we somehow avoided getting lost—an eventuality that seemed almost certain—who knew what manner of terrors lurked in their depths?
Aerion yanked a lever and the cart began to slow.
“We’re stopping?” I asked.
“We are.”
“Mind telling me why? We’re still a ways away, aren’t we?”
“The goblins own the rail stations,” Aerion replied. “We’ll be attacked the moment we enter.”
Great, I thought. We were still a good mile away from the castle or more.
If only I had more gear that upped my Vigor ceiling.
At least then the trek wouldn’t be such a wasted effort.
I needn’t have worried. The goblins offered plenty of distraction.
The goblins congregated at way stations, which Aerion and I took out methodically. It wasn’t hard dealing with the goblins, as long as they were in small groups and you got the jump on them.
My arming sword, while not as good at bashing glass as my bone club, still did alright. It took a few swings, but I eventually downed the little fuckers. For my opening move, I either ran up behind them and stomped them to the ground before finishing them with my sword… or I’d activate [Lightbringer] and swing at their necks the moment they were distracted.
Aiming for the neck was definitely the best strategy. Slashing served no purpose other than pissing them off. Their necks, though, were just thin enough that a well-placed slash had a chance of cleaving their heads off.
A low chance, given my nonexistent sword-wielding skills, but my efforts were rewarded nonetheless.
Congratulations! [Iron Arming Sword]’s ability [Lightbringer] has leveled up to Foundation - 4.
“You swing that like a club!” Aerion scolded me after we’d finished mopping up another group. The last one or two tended to make a break for the mining carts, but Aerion was always there, lying in wait.
His style relied on darting around the goblins, delivering swift kicks, punches, and dagger strikes. The kicks threw them off balance, and a dozen of the dagger strikes got them to finally shatter.
“Sorry,” I said. “Cut me some slack! The only thing I’ve ever swung was a baseball bat.”
“Base ball?” Aerion asked.
“A game. Uses a bat. I haven’t had any formal sword training.”
“That much is obvious,” Aerion replied.
“Have you?” I asked.
The elf nodded. “Only with daggers, though.”
“I’m surprised. I’d have thought you would be at least a little familiar with larger weapons as well, seeing how well you handle yourself.”
Aerion looked away. “There are… reasons. It was not by choice, I assure you.”
I wanted to poke deeper, but this was clearly a sensitive topic for the elf. I’d just drive him back into his shell.
We walked in silence, the mega-castle looming larger and larger over us, like a sea monster of the abyss whose mouth we were walking into.
I shook off the notion. It was just a castle. A dark, black castle at the bottom of an ocean filled with enormous alien creatures, but a castle all the same.
Yeah, this isn’t helping.
I was about to strike up a conversation with Aerion again when a wooden ladder came into sight. It was placed against the tunnel wall, and when I stood under it, I couldn’t actually see where it ended. Worse, the wood was rotted through with water, as if the castle had sprung a leak somewhere. Several rungs were missing entirely, and others looked like they’d break apart the moment any weight was put on them.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“We climb,” Aerion said.
“Er, you sure about this?” I asked. The thing had to have been at least fifty feet tall.
“It’s the fastest way to where they’re keeping Emma. Besides, I know of no other way. We wouldn’t be the first delvers to have perished simply because we got lost in a Trial.”
“Point taken. I suppose we climb.”
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The ladder didn’t give us any trouble. The endless halls that ensued, however, absolutely did. We were forced to hide, backtrack, reroute around, and—more than once—flee from goblin mobs, but we finally made it to the area where Aerion’s friend was being held.
The room was in one of the highrise-sized spires, and we stood on the tenth floor, looking down. The spire was circular, with each floor ringing the walls, balconies overlooking the vast empty central expanse of the tower.
It left the vast majority of the space occupied by nothing other than air, but damn was it pretty. It reminded me of those extravagant hotels with massive foyers designed for shock and awe.
We weren’t here for sightseeing, though. At the very bottom of the tower, an army of black ants milled around. Except, they weren’t ants. They were goblins, and there were hundreds of them. And, placed throughout the vast bottom floor, were dozens of cages.
I took one look, then ducked behind the balcony, slumping down.
“No,” I said curtly. “No fucking way. That’s where they’re keeping her?”
Aerion looked at me with a strained expression, saying nothing. He knew. He must’ve known just how impossible this was.
“Aerion, how did you even escape from there?” I asked. It was like trying to break out of a maximum security prison armed with nothing but sheer optimism. It just wouldn’t happen.
“It wasn’t easy. I picked the lock,” Aerion said. “The goblins aren’t great about checking what’s on you.”
“Okay? And how did you avoid being seen by literally hundreds of those things?”
“My cage was next to some crates. I waited for an opening, then hid in one. It was cramped… but I managed. The next day, they moved the crate away to some warehouse, and I was able to sneak away. Took me days to figure out how to get back to the cog carts, though. That’s why I know the castle’s map so well.”
“That’s… I’m sorry, Aerion. That had to have been terrifying,” I said, just trying to imagine the stress he must’ve gone through. “You did the right thing, though. Trying to save her would’ve gotten both of you killed.”
Aerion nodded. “I’m back, now. And I’ve brought help. We can do this. We have to. Please.”
I had to turn away. The pleading look Aerion gave me nearly made me cave. But that would be stupid. It’d be suicide.
Take care of that kid, will you? Cosmo’s request played unbidden in my head.
How much could I trust that god, though? I hesitated. Cosmo aside, wouldn’t I have done the same if I were in his shoes? Could I really abandon Aerion here?
Fuck.
“Alright, look. If we do this, we need every advantage we can get. We’ll need to monitor their activity. We’ll need a solid plan. We need to get stronger, and we need a way to take those things down without breaking a sweat.”
“How?” Aerion asked.
I held up my sword. “Better weaponry. It’s taking way too many hits to take these fuckers down, and our weapons are paying the price.”
Aerion inspected his dagger, his expression darkening. “You’re right. I never noticed. My dagger’s tip is already chipped.”
“My sword’s not doing so hot, either,” I said. Its condition had gone from 50 to 43 after only a half-dozen kills.
“What do you suggest?” Aerion asked. He always seemed to defer to me in the area of tactics. Maybe he liked my plans, or maybe he just thought I was better suited for it. Either way, I did appreciate not having to fight him over every little detail. It made it easier to go along with this harebrained scheme. Either we succeeded and I gained a shit ton of levels, or we failed, and everyone died.
Well, go big or go home, I guess.
“Couple of things,” I said. “First, we need other opponents. Preferably something not made of obsidian. There’s gotta be something on this floor that fits, yeah?”
Aerion thought it over for a moment. “There is, though I admit I am confused. Why waste time fighting monsters? Do you wish to hone your skills?”
“There’s that, but do you remember how I said the stuff I enchant grows over time? Well, it grows with use. That includes that robe you’re wearing, and your dagger too. I’m not exactly sure what it’ll take to get those to improve, but for me, combat definitely does it.”
“You’re saying we’ll grow stronger the more we fight?” Aerion asked.
“Yes. And in incredibly visible ways. Trust me on this one.”
“What was the other thing?”
“We’ll need to find some seriously powerful weaponry. Don’t suppose you know anywhere we can find something like that?”
“Actually? I believe I may have just the thing.”
I grinned. Excellent.
----------------------------------------
Maybe not excellent. Maybe actually the opposite of excellent.
“This… is a pool,” I said flatly. “An extremely large pool, granted, but still just a pool.”
“Not just a pool,” Aerion replied enthusiastically. We’d left the cog railway tunnels and had climbed several flights of dimly-lit stairs, traversed tall empty hallways, and jumped over a railing to get to this place. “This is the castle’s aquatic bay!”
I scratched my head, looking out over the enormous pool that stretched before us. It was like being on top of one of those whale tanks at an aquarium. Meaning, it was incomprehensibly huge. The room itself had a ceiling that was at least five stories tall, and the whole area was easily the size of two football fields placed side by side.
A handful of miniature submersibles lay suspended from a rudimentary crane above one end of the massive pool in the distance. These weren’t anything like modern research subs, but rather miniaturized versions of something that vaguely resembled a U-boat. And I mean really miniaturized. I doubted they could fit more than three or four people.
Looking down, I could see several shadows swimming deep within. Some small. Others very, very large. Which made me suspect that this ‘pool’ might be connected to the ocean outside the castle somehow.
“You don’t expect me to dive into that, do you?” I asked “I want to get stronger, not become an afternoon snack for a monster the size of a football field. And don’t expect me to get in one of those subs, either. That’d just make us a slightly larger monster snack.”
Aerion giggled, which put a smile on my face.
“If memory serves, that might just be the first time you’ve laughed at any of my jokes. Thought I was losing my touch there for a moment.”
Aerion stopped giggling and awkwardly cleared his throat. “A-anyway. To enter the pool would be far too dangerous. Rather, I have heard that this gallery has a unique mechanism. One that draws out the sea life, forcing them to jump high into the air.”
I looked up at the ceiling, so high above us. There was certainly enough room for something big to flop up there.
There was also a railing around four stories up that ringed the periphery of the room, upon which indistinct objects I couldn’t make out sat.
“Alright. But how do we kill it?” I asked.
“I believe we can use those,” Aerion said, pointing to a pair of strange contraptions. They were big. Massive. I’d only missed them earlier because the room had dwarfed them.
My smile widened. “Y’know? This might just be the dumbest thing I’ve ever done, but holy shit, this is gonna be fun.”
It was time to wreak some havoc with these mechanized ballistas.