Safety first.
If Aengus or Kate were killed, it would be almost impossible to bring them back from death. The mountain hotel was days away from a portal. And in any case, Liam would not be able to afford the fees that high level clerics and paladins charged for a Raise Dead. Since Liam was responsible for having brought his brother and his college friend all the way out here, he was determined to adopt a cautious approach to the completing the quests.
At his insistence, the Second Butler had provided the group with a dozen oil lanterns. Advancing into the tunnel, Liam placed a pair of lit lanterns on the ground, about two metres apart, confident the area was clear and the lamps were well away from the spawn points of any mobs. Twenty more metres and he put down another pair.
‘The main danger here is we pull a train,’ Liam explained, ‘one that will wipe us all. So if we have to run, we run back between the lanterns, away from adds, and keep the number of pursuers to a minimum.’
Not only were the lanterns a guide to a safe path back down the tunnel, they also shed much needed light. The road curved gently away from the courtyard of Hostelry of Eternal Darkness and once he was a hundred metres or so from the light and bustle of the hotel, Liam was in a darkness would have been complete but for the warm, orange glow of the lanterns. The road between the night and day sides of the mountain had been designed to be wide enough that two carriages could comfortably pass one another, the light from two lanterns was just strong enough to be sure the shadows at the walls on either side were insufficient to hide a monster.
When all twelve lanterns were down, Liam went back for the first two and brought them to the front. This leap-frogging tactic was necessarily slow, but no one complained.
Their first mob was a tunnel spider, lurking high up on the right-hand wall. It was supposed to be Level 7 or 8, which in theory should be a straightforward victory for a group with a Level 7 member. Not for the first time that afternoon, Liam pulled up the group menu.
Group Menu
Azanth, Crisp (Prawn Cocktail flavour), Mage Level 7, rank 0, evolution 0. HP 21.
Liam Nowak, Human, Mage Level 6, rank 0, evolution 0. HP 31.
Aengus Nowak, Human, Monk Level 5, rank 0, evolution 0. HP 33.
Kate Brannagan, Human, Mage Level 5, rank 0, evolution 0. HP 27.
After a brief discussion about tactics, Lord Azanth buffed them all with Fortify and Liam used the wand to cast Thornskin on his brother. Then, from his maximum range of eighteen metres, Liam pulled the giant spider with his extra-powerful Magic Missile – the +20 Magical Attack from his Hazel Wand of Syceus was disproportionately effective still at this level – and as the monster skittered towards them, eye clusters gleaming with malevolence, Kate stopped its charge with a Freeze. For his Level Three skill, Aengus had taken Ki Shock Wave and he performed the attack now, slamming the air with the palm of his left hand facing the spider and sending a cone of force ripping into the monster. Although this broke the Freeze, both Kate and Liam were ready with Magic Missile and these proved enough to kill the spider. Lord Azanth’s Intoxicating Scent wasn’t needed.
‘One down, nineteen to go,’ said Aengus cheerfully as he touched the green soul stone that had appeared above the corpse of the spider and added it to his inventory. They could discuss at the end of the day the best way to distribute soul stones. It might be smart to give them all to one person and gain the benefits if they achieved a promotion, than to share them equally and no one obtain a star for some time.
The next three battles were also with tunnel spiders and followed an identical pattern. As a result of their easy victories, the oppressive weight of responsibility on Liam’s shoulders distinctly lightened. They had dispatched the spiders with minimal drain on their mana.
His stomach tightened with concern, however, when their next encounter was visible from some distance away: a group of three chrono-beetles. These monsters were insects that were about the size and shape of a car; their abdomens quivered in the lamplight, giving rise to a faint hum and a restless vibration of their threatening mandibles. It wasn’t clear to Liam whether the beetles had wings folded into their curved carapace or not.
They do not. These creatures will run towards us along the ground, somewhat faster than a human. Fear not, Intoxicating Scent will be effective on two of these, leaving the third for the female mage to Freeze.
‘All right.’
‘What?’ asked Kate.
‘Sorry, I was talking to Lord Azanth. He suggests pulling with Intoxicating Scent, which should keep two of them stunned. I’ll Magic Missile the third and you Freeze.’
‘Right so. All set.’
Liam glanced at Aengus, who mimed his Ki Shock Wave move and gave a nod.
Pull.
A whiff of prawn cocktail flavouring came Liam’s way. Only one of the beetles turned to face them and it managed just a few hurried steps when Liam’s Magic Missile landed. Shaking its heavy head from side to side, the beetle staggered, then came on, only to be held in place by Kate’s Freeze. The next Magic Missile from Liam broke the root, but the beetle was moving slowly now and he was not surprised when his brother’s skill finished the monster. The beetle flipped over onto its back, shook its legs with a final, violent quiver, and expired with a piece of chitin floating above the corpse as loot.
Our enemies remain intoxicated; you may bring the next one to its fate.
‘I’ll pull another. Mana check?’
‘Seventy-percent,’ said Kate.
‘Seventy-five,’ reported Aengus.
Liam’s Magic Missile ended the intoxication on his target beetle and it ran towards them, only to be annihilated as quickly as the first.
‘No bother,’ said Aengus.
Not wanting to tempt fate, Liam did not reply. He did, however, feel considerable satisfaction that they could split groups of multiple mobs so efficiently. A tank-plus-healer-plus-mage set up would have handled the same fight differently. Pulling all three (the mage could pull with Freeze, but then would have the aggro from that mob when the root ended, with the risk that the tank would be too busy to intercept it) the tank would try to keep the aggro while the healer kept their hit points topped up and the mage tried to inflict damage without gaining the attention of the mobs. It would have been a much trickier fight.
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Vanity is the wish to be appreciated. It is a frivolous state of mind. Yet allow me a moment of vanity to state that having chosen the path of the support class, I bring considerable benefit to those whom I am grouped with.
You mean: we couldn’t have managed that battle so well without you.
Were I not a poet, I might have expressed myself in so prosaic a fashion.
Well, thank you Lord Azanth, your Intoxicating Scent is most appreciated. We couldn’t have managed that battle without you.
I bask in the glow of your praise.
They progressed steadily along the old road, clearing tunnel spiders, chrono- beetles, and the easily identified glowpedes. These giant centipedes with luminous bodies – unpleasantly showing their interior organs - sometimes gathered in groups of three and, according to Lord Azanth, had a poison that lowered Strength. Again, Liam had been on edge when pulling them and he was rueing the absence of a healer. If anyone were bitten, they would have to hope they had sufficient Strength to survive until the poison wore off. Again, too, though, his anxiety was unfounded: the glowpedes could be dispatched by a stun, root, and shoot strategy before coming close enough to Aengus to bite him.
The rate of soul stone drops was high, about one in five mobs, and this prompted Liam to ask Lord Azanth if the reason he’d chosen the region for their efforts to level up had taken soul stone drops into account.
The encouraging frequency with which we are gathering soul stones is a happy addition to our circumstance. In coming here, I had but two goals that needed to be met: to obtain a steady supply of opponents of suitable challenge; and to live in a residence that was discreet. The Hostelry of Eternal Light and Darkness is renowned across the planes for the fact that scrying magic does not work in the vicinity of this mountain. The titanic power that halts the progress of sun and stars also serves to stymie the magic of crystal balls, Clairvoyance, Arcane Eye, the Cauldron of Daghada, Astral Mind, Farseeing, Mirror of Finding… No one can view the Hostelry and its habitants using magic.
I see.
Liam would have asked more about how this anti-magic effect had come about, but a change to the environment caught his attention.
‘Over there,’ Kate picked up a lantern and moved it closer to the right-hand wall, where it seemed a pale shroud was hanging down from the roof.
‘Careful,’ said Liam, as his brother took a step towards it.
‘I’m on eighty mana, shall I Ki blast it?’
‘Go on, so.’
As his brother assumed the martial arts pose, Liam was struck with how impressive Aengus had become. Powerful even. Of the two, Liam was the taller and had always seen Aengus as a little frail. Not now. There was strength in that frame and Liam would not want to be standing in front of the shock wave of his brother’s skill. The air rippled in front of Aengus and the force of it smashed into the shroud, causing the white fabric to disintegrate, with pale strands of tissue drifting to the ground.
Quest Received
You have destroyed a sack of tunnel spider eggs. Find and destroy another 19 sacks to prevent a major reinfestation.
‘Nice!’ Aengus exclaimed and Kate looked over at Liam with a wide smile on her ruddy face. Both of them were reflecting the positive feelings in his own heart. Another quest! After months as a student, failing to obtain quests, let alone complete them, he now had thirteen open and six of those were repeatable. Everyone in the group needed twenty completed quests to reach light green rank. Going up a rank gave a boost to Intelligence, Magical Attack, Magical Defence (as opposed to gaining a star by collecting soul stones, which led to an increase in Strength, Physical Attack and Physical Defence). More importantly, probably, was the issue that at some point a light green rank was a requirement for levelling up a skill. And if Magic Missile was already very effective on these mobs, how much more so would it be if he got the skill to level 2?
Magic Missile
Releases a bolt of pure magic at the target, inflicting base damage plus damage proportional to Magical Attack. As the skill increases in level the base damage and range of the attack increase. At Level 4, the skill can be used to do damage to two targets simultaneously and at Level 7, three.
Component: A very small amount of sulphur.
Level 1 – Base damage 6. Range 18m.
Level 2 – Base damage 10. Range 20m. Locked (requires light green rank)
Level 3 – Base damage 14. Range 22m. Option to split the missile into two, hitting two targets with base damage of 7 each. Locked (requires level 10)
Level 4 – Base damage 18. Range 24m. Option to split the missile into two, hitting two targets with base damage of 9 each. Locked (requires two stars)
Level 5 – Base damage 22. Range 26m. Option to split the missile into two, hitting two targets with base damage of 11 each. Locked (requires level 20)
Level 6 – Base damage 26. Range 28m. Option to split the missile into two, hitting two targets with base damage of 13 each. Locked (requires light blue rank)
Level 7 – Base damage 30. Range 30m. Option to split the missile into three, hitting three targets with base damage of 15 each. Locked (requires level 50)
Level 8 – Base damage 60. Range 60m. Option to split the missile into two, hitting two targets with base damage of 30 each. Locked (requires level 100)
Not wanting to get ahead of himself, Liam closed the skill menu and picking up a lantern, continued along the tunnel in search of their next mob.
After another hour or so of pulling and battling the monsters of the dark roadway, they had to take a break to let their mana replenish.
‘Fourteen tunnel spiders, twelve chrono-beetles and eleven glowpedes,’ said Kate. ‘Not bad for an afternoon. We’ll complete at least three quests tomorrow.’
‘How far down the tunnel do you think we are?’ Liam wondered aloud.
‘Ask the crisp?’ suggested Aengus. ‘Speaking of which, I wish we had some snacks. Tomorrow, let’s stock up with pastries from the kitchen before we come here.’
‘His name is Lord Azanth,’ Liam brought the plastic container out from under his shirt. ‘Calling him a crisp is a rude. It’s like saying, “ask the human”; it’s a bit speciesist or something.’
‘Only if you consider a crisp to be an inferior form of life. Personally, I hold crisps in the highest regard. A finely cooked slice of potato is a far more noble a creature than any animal, including the human. Such perfection of form; such minimal bodily functions; so inviting a flavour.’
A pause. Then a moment later Aengus said, ‘my apologies Lord Azanth, you are right. I know nothing about it.’
‘What did he say?’ asked Kate.
‘Mock the crisp and ignorance show: you only reveal how little you know.’
She smiled, adjusting the clip that held a lock of blonde hair away from her eyes. ‘That’s you told.’
A shiver ran through Liam, like the ground were shaking. Except that it wasn’t. And suddenly there were more lanterns further along the corridor. Standing among them were three young people, two males and a female, dressed in the same purple robes… Wait. They were Aengus, Kate and himself. His doppleganger raised a hand in a friendly wave and Liam did the same. The alternate Aengus, however, gave them the middle finger and then laughed.
‘Hey Aengus can you hear me?’ the other Aengus called over in his brother’s voice.
‘I can. What are you?’
‘I’m in your future. About ten minutes ahead.’
‘Awesome. Can we exploit this in some way?’
The other three versions of their group turned to each other and were talking, as if to find an answer for Aengus. They were too far away to hear the exact words, but the impression of the tone of their conversation was of earnest and thoughtful discussion.
‘Can we?’ asked Kate.
‘I’m not sure I believe them. What if it’s a skill from a nearby monster? One who can make illusions? Oh, Lord Azanth says it’s real. It’s the titan Chronos. He’s tugging at his chains and they are loosening. We’re in a timequake.’
‘If we were back home, I’d tell you the result of a horserace and you’d have time to make the bet,’ future Aengus shouted to them down the corridor. ‘But here, we can’t think of anything.’
Then the others were gone and Liam’s sensation of being thrown around in a fairground ride ceased.
‘Freaky,’ said Kate. ‘Does Lord Azanth think we should continue? It’s getting late in any case. Maybe we should go back?’
‘If we go back,’ said Aengus, ‘then what happens to our future selves? They won’t be able to talk to us and give us that experience we just had.’
‘Let’s go back,’ the incident had made Liam uneasy and suddenly aware that they were hundreds of metres along an old road that ran deep into a mountain that was full of monsters, including unknown and unpredictable encounters. ‘Our future selves can sort out the paradoxes.’
Gathering the lanterns and moving carefully back down the tunnel – it did not seem that the mobs were respawning, but that couldn’t be taken for granted – Liam’s happiness in the success of the grind was gone, replaced by an anxiety that he felt Lord Azanth also shared. If that was a tremor, then what would it be like if Chronos broke free entirely?