The three kobolds corpses had been thrown down the lake to hide them. We didn’t want a party of scouts finding them and raising the alarm. If they went missing with no body it would create some confusion as to what had happened.
My human half was a bit bothered by how easy it had been to snuff out another life. Not an animal but another bipedal sentient. Of course, this was tempered by the knowledge that kobolds weren't friendly in the least. Most of the sentient races that had established themselves in the dungeon were friendly or at least neutral, it wasn't the case with the kobolds. They had a taste for flesh and a tendency to … desecrate your corpse, not necessarily in that order.
It took us almost an hour to reach the fort while evading the occasional patrol. The fort itself was a large structure of dark stone three stories high. The flourishes on the design was vaguely reminiscent on what I saw every day on the larger buildings in Niu. I wondered if it was made by dark elves. Though the ruined state of the structure indicated that it had been abandoned for a very long time, a large tree root had gone through the outer wall and was poking out the other side, parts of the wall had also collapsed.
[https://i.imgur.com/gB4Mp8P.jpg]
I spotted several kobolds keeping watch on the upper tiers of the fort and some of the windows had faint lights coming through them. It looked like a pack had made their base there. Which made our life quite difficult since we needed to explore the fort.
"That's a problem," I said.
"And we don't even know where our objective is," Vel said.
"Probably not where it was anyway," I tapped my chin, "its a relic so if the kobolds found it, they probably have it."
We had been sent to retrieve a minor relic that the scouts had placed in the structure. We had only been given a vague description of the item, a golden bracelet with a red jewel. It was a bit artificial but there weren't that many unexplored structures within a few days of travel from the village, and nobody was insane enough to send newbies there.
"I might have an idea," I said, "I'm close to my next perk and I was planning on picking a skill that will probably help us find our target."
"Wait … hold on a second," Vel said in surprise, "holy … you're almost level forty!"
"Yes," I said sheepishly.
"Gaia is really helping you, I'm at twenty-five."
"I'm sorry, I …"
"Don't …" she put her finger on my lips. "Don't blame yourself, I'm just impressed that you're growing so fast. And I'm happy for you too. So, what was the plan?"
"Simple, we kill a few kobolds to get me to level forty, I get the Perception Domain perk which gives me all-round vision, we use this to find the item."
"Simple," Vel said with a smirk.
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Finding an isolated kobold patrol took some time. They didn't venture too far into the jungle where it would be easy to get them. They also were in groups of three and I was hesitant to test the accuracy of my new multishot skill against them.
In the end, we got lucky. One of the kobolds split off from the group. As it turned out, he had an urgent need to pee. He met his end with an enhanced arrow through the neck in the middle of his business. His expected disappearance gave us enough time to reposition and take down the two remaining scouts.
System Log
Your group has defeated [Kobold (Rank 2, Level 17)]
Your group has defeated [Kobold (Rank 2, Level 18)]
Your group has defeated [Kobold (Rank 2, Level 16)]
Experience gain reduced by 20% for fighting with a group
Reached Level 40
Gained 5 SP, 1 AP, 1 CP, 1 Perk
Reached Rank 2 Capstone
Gained 1 AS, 10 SP, 10 AP
"Got it," I said.
Vel and I dragged the bodies into a burrow underneath a tree and left.
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Once we were sufficiently far from the regular patrols, we took a break inside the canopy of a tree. I pulled up my perk selection screen and went directly for what I wanted.
System Action
Gain [Perception Domain]
Cost: 1 Perk, Left: 0 Perks
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Confirm [Y/N]
The perk activated the instant I confirmed. It was disorienting at first, I could see around me from every angle at once. The radius of the sphere was around twenty meters. I was glad I had gained a third mental partition as well. It took all three working together to handle the large amount of sensory input.
"Lis, are you alright?" Vel asked with worry in her voice.
I could see myself, like a third person camera, my face had gone slack and my eyes were unfocused. I blinked a few times and pushed the perception domain to the background. I was back in my body and normal vision returned.
"Yes," I said as I shook my head, "it's … a lot. I can see all the way down to the ground from here. And all the way up too. There's a nest two trees over that way, the hatchlings are hungry and waiting for food. I can see the flow of mana all around, through the ground, the trees, the leaves, us."
"How many fingers," she asked with her hand behind her.
"Two," I said, "now it's four, three, now you're making a ring with your thumb."
"Does it go through walls?"
"I can see inside the trees so … probably."
"Good, do you want some more time to get use to it?"
"Let's wait half an hour," I said, "I'll probably get another partition by then and it will ease the strain."
"Alright," Vel pulled me closer and I snuggled into her side, "we have plenty of time."
She started to stroke my hair with a smile on her face. On my side, I pushed the domain to my two active partitions and started to look around for interesting things. I found an incredible amount of life teeming all around, small insects going about their business, a colony of ants cutting the leaves of a tree with mechanical precision. The baby birds finally got fed when their mother returned. A small lizard was eyeing the eggs in another nest, patiently waiting for the nesting mother to leave.
System Log
[Mind Partition (I)] has reached level 20
[Mind Acceleration (I)] has reached level 11
With the extra partition, I felt the strain on my minds lessen significantly. I also took the time to spend my class points.
System Action
Increase [Druid] to level 3 for 1 CP
Cost: 1 CP, Left: 0 CP
Confirm [Y/N]
System Message
Class [Druid] has 1 free skill purchase
I left the skill purchase for later. I banked on the more interesting skills showing up at higher levels.
"I got it," I said.
"Let's go then," Vel kissed me on the cheek.
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Entering the fort from the front, where the main entrance was, was not an option. There were kobolds milling about, no amount of skill in stealth would prevent us from being spotted. Instead we went around the structure and approached it from the back. The wall of the fortified courtyard was in bad shape, the large roots going through were proof of that, and gave us some opportunity to sneak in.
With my sphere, I could see through the wall and into the courtyard. The kobolds had build a small camp there, I could see tents and fires. No permanent structure however.
Vel used her plant magic to move a small part of one of the massive roots out of the way. The resulting tunnel allowed us to enter without being spotted by the watchers on the higher levels. Kobolds couldn't see in the dark, not as well as Vel and I, and had to rely on torches. The amount of light created by the crystals was, at best, at the level of a full moon back on Earth.
The part of the courtyard we had entered was void of torches or tents since the floor was covered in more roots. We used the shadows to our advantage and went for the nearest door into the fort.
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Inside the fort was pitch black, only a few shafts of faint moonlight radiated through the windows. Vel and I could see fine thanks to our night vision but the kobolds would need torches to move around.
'Let's start at the bottom,' I signed to her.
'Understood," she signed back.
The fort had tight corridors and stairways. I kept my dagger at the ready at all times and watched for anyone stepping into my sphere. The first of the lower levels had several empty storerooms and what looked like a jail. Further down, we found more storerooms and something much more interesting. An active enchantment was blocking my perception. The hallway ended with a brick wall half-way through the structure, at the same level where the previous storage rooms did.
On the wall itself was an enchantment I could read with my magic perception, it was faint enough that I doubted I would have been able to find it without it. The fact that I couldn't see into the stone of the wall had been my first clue about something being wrong.
'Secret passage. Magic lock.'
'Wall?'
'Yes.'
I doubted the village scouts would have left any stone unturned during their exploration. Yet, this looked to have been untouched for a long time. It was possible none of the village scouts had my particular combination of perception abilities.
'Open?'
'Yes,' Vel signed enthusiastically.
I wasn't an expert in enchantments, nobody in the village was, but it seemed that magic perception allowed me to peek behind the curtain enough to get some clues anyway. With the help of my lore skills, I managed to at least understand the idea. It was a lock. Which was obvious in retrospect.
It probably wasn't the kind of lock with a physical key. There was a circle at the center of the enchantment that looked like a keyhole but it was at the center of a brick. One possibility I was that the key was another enchanted object that was pressed in the circle. If that was the case, we were out of luck. But I also had another idea.
I placed my hand at the center of the circle and pushed mana into the structure. I saw it run through the channels but everywhere it went, it seemed to fizzle out, almost like when a spell was missing a component.
But maybe it was.
I pressed my palm against the blade of my dagger and made a shallow cut. Vel was watching me with interest and I just gave her a reassuring smile. This time, when I pushed mana through, the enchantment reached back. I felt a slight tingle on my cut but continued to push, no foreign mana was coming back into my system. My mana, however, continued along the channels and reached the edges of the door.
Something clicked and the wall receded slightly. As soon as it did, my perception sphere got through the blockage. Behind the stone door was a small hallway and several rooms. I gave the door a good shove and the big stone door moved out of the way.
I motioned to Vel to follow me. It was time to explore some ruins, Indy style.