Focus: 369/369

The time had come. Cass had to decide. No matter how she ran the risks and benefits, Option 4: “Go Find Some Treasure” came out the best.

The only questions now were: was she going on her own and which door was she going to try?

The fire had burned low, little more than a single log, more charcoal at this point than wood. Pellen dozed against the wall beside Cass.

They stirred as Cass stood. “Huh? What’s going on?”

“I’m rested,” Cass said. “And I think I’m going to try exploring one of these side rooms. Do you want to come with me?”

Cass had gone back and forth on offering to let Pellen come with her. On one hand, Cass barely knew the mage. For all Cass knew, they’d stab her in the back before they’d gotten anywhere. It didn’t seem likely to Cass, but it was the kind of thing Salos would have told her to worry about.

On the other hand, Cass could use all the help she could get surviving down here. The idea of exploring this place on her own was deeply unappealing.

Pellen frowned, their brow furrowing over their primary eye. Were they running similar analysis? “One of the side rooms?”

Cass shrugged. “Best option would be to get back to our respective groups faster. But, I don’t know which way that would be. So finding treasure while we wait is the next best option.”

Pellen’s frown didn’t lessen. “And why can’t we stay here?”

Cass walked them through her thoughts on the matter.

They nodded slowly as Cass spoke, refraining from interrupting until the end. “But what if they pass us?”

Cass had left out the part about Salos being able to find her, since that was sensitive and she hadn’t wanted to explain how that worked. But without that assurance, she could understand the greater reluctance.

“We have a long while before they get down here,” Cass said finally. “I don’t want to sit tight that long with nothing to do. You?”

Pellen looked between the dying fire and Cass, still far from thrilled with the prospect. Finally, they nodded. “I think I’ll go with you.”

“Cool,” Cass said. “So, since I’ve strong armed you into coming, why don’t you pick a room?”

Pellen’s eyes widened at the suggestion. “M-me?”

Cass nodded. “No pressure. Just pick one. Or I can spin my dagger and we can just go into the one it’s pointing at?”

Truthfully, Cass was hoping they’d have some other factoids about the Catacombs, which might lead them to better treasure. Seemed like they didn’t, but that was okay. Cass’s luck was good, but always seemed accompanied by calamity. She’d rather someone else give it a shot instead.

“That one maybe?” Pellen said, pointing to the door directly across the room from the two of them.

“Sounds good to me,” Cass said, striding across the room with confidence. She put her hands on the door and pushed.

They glowed with purple sigils and didn’t budge.

Cass frowned at them. “What?”

Were they supposed to be locked? She glanced over her shoulder to Pellen. Pellen’s eyes had widened again. They shook their head, they didn’t understand either.

Cass went to the next door. Again, it glowed and refused to open. Cass crossed back to the third door. Glowing sigils met her. She circled back to the door they’d entered from. Again, glowing sigils and stuck doors.

“They’re all locked?” Cass asked. “Are they supposed to be locked?”

Pellen shook her head. “I’ve never heard of the side doors being locked. M-maybe they’re pull doors?”

Cass bit her lip and pulled on the handle of the nearest door. Again, the sigil glowed and, again, it didn’t move. Cass shook her head. “You try!”

Nervously, Pellen approached the door. They put their hand on the handle and pulled. Nothing happened. They pushed, and it swung open with ease.

The two mages stared at the open doorway.

“What did you do?” Cass asked.

“N-nothing!”

“Why did it open for you?”

“Why didn’t it open for you!”

Cass stepped back. Was it actually her then? Were all the doors locked for her? Why? Because she was from another world? Because she was a slyphid? Because she was bound to a demon? Because she ‘belonged’ to a different god?

“I don’t know,” Cass said. “But I think I might need you to open the doors for me.”

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather stay right here?” Pellen asked.

“Come on, the side rooms aren’t any more dangerous than staying put. Who knows when something will wander down the Main Path?”

Pellen glanced at both sets of main doors, her eyes splitting between the two of them equally while her central eye stared at the door in front of them. “That makes some sense.”

The two stepped into the side hall, the purple sconces springing to light on either side of them and the door swinging shut behind them.

The hall opened into a large room filled with snakes.

They were about as wide as Cass’s arm and as long as she was tall. Their bodies were silver metal ribs wrapped around the same green ectoplasmic flesh. Their heads were grimacing skulls.

Silversoul Snakes (lvl 18) x 12

[A security measure common to the Vaisom Catacombs middle levels. They possess the ability to stun and restrain intruders.]

That was a lot of them. They were all lower level than Cass, but not that much lower.

Each one curled around a pedestal lining the room, their tails hanging out onto the walkway.

“Should we turn around?” Pellen whispered.

Cass pursed her lips. “Don’t you have any AOE attacks?”

Pellen was a proper mage. In video games, they usually had big skills for handling large numbers of weaker enemies, like Fire Ball or Ice Storm or Earthquake or something.

Pellen just looked at Cass, confused. “Ay-Oh-Ee?”

Oh, the abbreviation must not have translated from English at all. “I mean, wide ranging, area attacks? Something to kill all of them at once?”

It was Pellen’s turn to purse their lips. “Maybe? But would it be wise for me to use that much Focus this early? Who knows how many rooms there are after this one.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Cass frowned. Right. Resource management was important here. They could rest if they started getting tired, but time was as much a resource as anything else. If they wanted to get back to the Main Path about the time their respective groups did, they only had so much time. A lot of time, but limited.

“What can you do without expending too much?” Cass asked. She needed a better understanding of their capabilities if she was going to plan anything.

“I majored in spatial magic,” they said. “But, um, it doesn’t have many practical offensive capabilities. And, my particular subfield is mostly theoretical in nature. But I brought the school’s primer on combat chants.” They held up the tome hanging from their shoulder.

“Combat chants?”

Pellen nodded. “They are mostly force and fire magics. But there are some physical buffs as well.”

“Was one of them what you used upstairs?”

Pellen nodded again. “That was Telli-ai’s Explosion, Third Edition. I was, um, trying to destroy the platform that Lady Mirzen was standing on.” There face paled a shade. “Do you think I succeeded?”

Cass nodded.

“Did you see her in the chasm?” Pellen asked.

Cass frowned. It had been chaotic down there and dead bodies did not stand out to Atmospheric Sense any more than rubble did. “I’m not sure.”

“D-do you think she survived?”

It was a far drop from the second floor to the fifth where she and Pellen had landed, and the two of them had only survived because of Cass’s magic. But Cass could understand hoping not to have killed a person.

Still, Cass wasn’t going to lie about this. “I think it’s unlikely she survived the fall.”

Pellen sighed, their shoulders slacking. “Oh, good.”

“Good?” Cass raised an eyebrow. That hadn’t been the response she’d expected.

“If she’d lived and was on this floor with us, she might be angry with me for trying to kill her. But she can’t hurt us if she’s dead.”

“Oh,” Cass said. “I suppose that’s true.”

They’d gotten sidetracked. The snakes were still in front of them, seemingly uninterested in the pair in the doorway.

“Anyway, can you use that Explosion on them in there?” Cass asked.

“I think that would be a bad idea,” Pellen said. “Telli-ai’s Explosion works by causing the structure of certain kinds of stone to rapidly destabilize. The released potential is a side effect of that reaction. So, it would probably destroy the floor. I’m not sure how thick the floors are here. But we might blow through it.

“It is also one of the more Focus expensive spells I have available.”

“Alright, what do you suggest, then?” Cass asked.

“And turning around isn’t an option,” Pellen checked again.

“Do you really want to turn around?”

They sighed. “Not really. Okay. Um. I think that Lord Kohen and his swordsmen would kill them if there were this many at such a low level.”

Cass frowned. “I think it’s a few too many for me to handle on my own.”

“I suppose there are three of them and only one of you.”

That left them back where they’d started.

“Let’s see how they react to me approaching them,” Cass said. “Stand back and be prepared to run if things go poorly.”

Pellen nodded, flipping her tome open.

Cass took a step into the room. They didn’t budge from their perches. Encouraged, Cass approached the nearest snake. Its head rested atop a cube, its body coiled around the pedestal beneath it. Up close, Cass could see the box was semi-transparent. Something was inside.

“They’re guarding things,” Cass called back to Pellen.

“Can we walk through?” Pellen asked.

The snake’s eyes flicked toward Pellen, then back to Cass.

Cass stepped back to the middle of the room and tried walking deeper. One of the snake’s tail hung out onto the walkway. It hissed as Cass approached, but it curled tighter around its pedestal rather than attacking.

Cass made it all the way across without the snakes stopping her.

“Seems safe?” Cass called back, though it remained to be seen if they would have a problem opening the door. “But if we’re looking for treasure, I think they each have something.”

Cass walked back to Pellen.

“I’m going to try opening this one,” Cass said, pointing to the snake and box nearest to the entryway.

“O-okay,” Pellen said.

Cass eyed the box. The snake eyed her back. Salos had said this was a storehouse, so it made sense there was security on treasure. Would the snake give it up easily if she’d been the proper owner? Or if she had some sort of key or identification?

She didn’t, so it didn’t matter.

She called a Wind Blade to her staff. The snake didn’t react.

She raised the glaive. The snake’s eyes narrowed. Its body sparked with electricity. A warning.

Cass swung down.

The snake lunged.

Her Wind Blade caught its body, slicing a section of ectoplasmic flesh from its side.

It darted around the staff, its jaws latching onto Cass’s shoulder. Lightning burst through its fangs, burning down Cass’s arms.

Pellen shouted something behind Cass, and the snake was enveloped in a red glow. It convulsed, releasing Cass’s shoulder.

Cass slammed her staff into its skull. Wind Blade had failed when the snake bit her, so the blunt end of the wood crashed into the snake’s head.

It oozed green liquid, but rallied as whatever Pellen had done faded with the red glow. It slipped around Cass’s ankle, pulling her off balance.

Cass fell.

It lunged for her neck.

Her Dexterity caught the thing’s neck instead. She held it tight in her bare hand, her staff dropped. It writhed, electricity sparking off its body.

Cass called a flame to her free hand with Elemental Manipulation and pressed it into the snake’s face.

Its writhing turned from angry to desperate as it tried to pull away.

Cass held its hissing body until the ectoplasm evaporated under her hands, leaving only the metal plates which had lined its body.

She huffed and stood back up. “That’s one. Shall we see what it was guarding?”

None of the other snakes had moved from their positions, thankfully. After handling that one, she was reasonably sure that she could have handled two or three at once, but not more than that.

Cass and Pellen turned their attention to the box the snake had been guarding. It was a box made of a semi-translucent glass. Through it, Cass could see a gem about the size of a large marble.

There was a handle on the box with a square of polished, black stone at the base.

Cass pulled on the handle as Pellen spoke, “Oh, darn. These are sigil-locked—“

The stone glowed purple and the door swung open.

“—boxes. Only their owner can—” Pellen stopped, staring at the open box and then Cass. “Only the owner is supposed to be able to open these?”

Cass frowned. “That doesn’t seem right.”

Pellen eyed Cass. “Did you do something to open them?”

Cass shook her head. “I just pulled on the handle.”

“But that’s impossible.”

Cass gestured to the box. “Are you seeing something I don’t?”

Pellen shook their head.

“Well, let’s just see what’s inside? Maybe this one was left unlocked or something by mistake?”

Pellen nodded.

Cass inspected the object within.

Crystallized Skill Experience Gem

[Generalized skill experience crystallized into a consumable form applicable to any skill.]

“Th-that’s—that’s crystallized skill experience!” Pellen stuttered.

Cass nodded. That’s what Identify said. “Is that… unusual?”

Pellen’s eyes widened and they nodded fiercely. “I’ve heard legends of these, but I didn’t actually think they were real! Definitely not an unattuned crystal!”

“Are they usually attuned?”

Pellen scowled. “Do meteors usually hit land?”

Cass’s confusion must have still been obvious.

“They are too rare to comment on what they are usually like. The means of making them was lost in the last age. The surviving ones I’ve heard of all only apply to a single skill or, occasionally, a small category of skills. Is that because it was hard to make truly generalized ones, because the more generalized ones were used up already, or something else entirely? No one knows.”

“I see,” Cass said. “Then these are super valuable?”

Pellen nodded.

“Think we should see if the rest of these are the same?” Cass gestured at the other boxes.

They were.

About an hour later, they had twelve crystallized skill experience gems, six a piece.

Pellen stared at their handful of marbles, their eyes all hungrily watching the way the purple sconce light flickered over their dusty surfaces.

Cass wasn’t much different, rolling them around in her palms. They were far heavier than they looked. More real than the space around them. They begged to be used. Or perhaps it was her skills that were clamoring for them?

“Are you going to use yours right now?” Cass asked.

“I’m not sure,” Pellen said slowly. “Supposedly, they are good for an entire level, regardless of current level or progress.” They licked their lips. “So it might be better to wait until I bring the skill up to my current level, or at least until I level one naturally.”

That made sense. But, on the other hand, bringing a skill up a level might reduce its resource cost, increase its potency, or decrease its cooldown a critical amount to make the difference between life and death.

Then again, Cass did not know which one she should use it on. Was it better to use it on her highest level skill to maximize the gain? Or would it make sense to use it on a useful but low leveled skill?

Or if she should give some to Salos. Could Salos even use them with his skills capped by his level?

Cass slipped them into her Bag. This was a decision for later, after consulting Salos about it.

Pellen held one up. It exploded in their fingers. A euphoric smile slipped across their lips. The expression was gone quickly, and they slipped the rest into their bag.

They glanced sheepishly at Cass. “I couldn't resist using at least one.”