image [https://i.imgur.com/s1Ots7A.jpg]
Fabulosa approached one of the sealed doorways. “Can Magnetize open these?”
The previous star chamber’s doors bore hinges along the top with counterweights that made moving possible with Magnetize. These doors’ corrosion gave me doubts, but I gave it a shot. My spell showed polarity, magnetic properties, and shapes. Here, the hinge had fused and warped around the masonry.
I shook my head. “These two doors are closed for good.” We monkeyed with them for a while before giving up. If they led to anything important, we’d have a terrible time reaching it.
“It looks like we have an audience.” Fabulosa gestured toward a few dozen ants who watched our endeavors. Despite their size, visible hair, and sharp carapaces, their waving antennae made them look inquisitive, striking me as cute.
I bent down and asked in a squeaky voice, usually reserved for pets and babies. “Awww. Do you guys want to tell us what’s behind door number one?”
The ants’ wicked mandibles clicked threateningly at my motion, and I backed away. “All right, don’t get so upset. You give me any trouble, and I’ll squash ya.” The threat carried little weight in my mind, as the idea of crushing big ants held little appeal.
Fabulosa did not like creepy crawlies. “Don’t make them angry.”
The feeling became mutual as the clicking ants held their ground. Only a couple dozen of them occupied the room, so I waved my hands to scatter them. “Shoo! Go home. Get out of here.”
Another two passages had more doors with hinges along the top, but in their case, corrosion welded them open. They both led to narrow hallways, but one had collapsed and filled with earth and debris, leaving only a tight crawlspace.
Fabulosa tossed a glow stone into the crawlspace, revealing a giant mass of ants infesting the tunnel. A loud chittering noise erupted when the glow stone landed, sounding like a dump truck pouring gravel. Silhouettes of ants darkened the glow stone before the crawling blanket completely smothered it. The ebony wave surged toward us faster than we expected.
“You couldn’t just use your infravision necklace?”
“This from the guy who blasts Presence every chance he gets?”
“I have a hard time judging distance with infravision—but I see your point.”
Fabulosa’s spell, Wall of Thorns, proved useless again. Instead of bashing through it like the minotaur, the giant ants flowed through its vines.
Instead, she pulled out an axe I barely remember, Rainbow’s End. A prismatic arc hung in the air when she swung it, stopping the masses of ants in their tracks. “We got 30 seconds to bug outta here!”
Name
Giant Ant Swarm
Level
30
Difficulty
Easy (green)
Health
2,000/2,000
Fabulosa sent a Fireball into the tunnel, and the choral chittering hit a crescendo as the crawlspace erupted in flames. The ants near the hanging rainbow remained in place, and I remembered she’d acquired the weapon during her first trip to Grayton. It charmed or confused swarms, which proved essential for buying enough time to escape.
Pinches on my legs and feet pulled my attention away from Fabulosa’s extermination. I swatted at the black ants, but they jumped on my hands, burying their painful pincers into my skin. Scorching myself did little to burn the buggers off. The game’s interface scrolled by with a dozen death messages. Unfortunately, the dead amounted to just a drop in the bucket.
I killed the last one clinging to my arms, but pains in my legs grew until I pounded them off with my fists. My efforts resulted in as many fresh bites as crushed ants.
“Patch! Watch out!” Fabulosa had cast Hot Air and escaped the ground, away from the ants coming from the debris-filled crawlspace. Her Fireball struck the back of the crawlspace, leaving the ants in front untouched and angry.
I followed her example and rose into the air, kicking and battering the remaining ants off me by the time I could reach the rope. Fabulosa wasn’t so fortunate. She had been closer to the chamber’s wall when she cast Hot Air. The sloping ceiling stopped her ascent, and the ants flowed up the wall to reach her. Before I could tell her to get out of there, she Slipstreamed to the line and stood further out of harm’s way than me. We climbed as fast as we could up the rope. The raindrops blinded me when I looked up, so I focused on the rising black tide of insects.
“How long before your Fireball cooldown ends?”
“Just about—now!” Fabulosa gripped the rope around her thighs and arms and directed another blast into the mass. Without painful bites distracting me, I could cast a Compression Sphere on the floor, Stunning the ants within its radius.
Fabulosa shot Ice Bolts at the closest. Each hit initialized a death message in my combat log.
When the wave of attackers thinned out, I wasn’t so panicked and cast Shocking Reach and Scorch.
Fabulosa’s Ice Bolts cleared swaths of them off the walls.
We hung on the rope and picked them off, stomping at ants climbing the tree. When the excitement abated, the chamber stilled once more.
Fabulosa gestured below. “Go down and check if it’s clear.”
I decided not to complain about her orders—this wasn’t an argument I could win. Even though her Slipstream cooldown ended, she seemed determined to avoid going further. Even after the fray, I avoided stepping on the few still alive. Using Creeper to poke into the crawlspace, I saw more ants inside.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“There’s more in here, Fab. You’re going to have to hit them with another Fireball.”
“Nuts to that! Go pull them, and I’ll blast them from up here.”
I sighed. This woman would charge a dragon but drew a line with insects.
The light from Presence grabbed their attention and the sound of pouring gravel increased. I drew a smaller wave of critters by casting a Compression Sphere in the crawlspace. Fabulosa got most of them with a Fireball, and we cleaned up the outliers with individual spells. After our cooldowns, we tried it again, but only a few responded.
“I think we got them all. You can come down now.”
“Are you sure?”
I shrugged. “No, I’m not. But the only way to be sure is to venture into the crawlspace and look around the corner.”
Fabulosa didn’t move.
I sighed. “Alright. I’ll go by myself. I’ve got Slipstream ready. But you have to Fireball the tunnel if they come out again. I can’t Slipstream twice. I already wasted my robe’s reset on that stupid snake.”
I crawled over the debris of packed mud and bones. The smell of charred insects made me gag, and I breathed through the cloth scarves we wore for the spore bloom. I poked Creeper through the crawlspace and peered through its infravision.
The crawlspace ended in an impassible blockage of collapsed masonry, roots, and mud. In front of the door stood a queen ant the size of a small dog. An honor guard of soldier ants surrounded her.
I cast Dig at the ground to make myself enough room to crouch.
The soldiers and queen chittered angrily but made no move to attack.
I could hear Fabulosa shifting behind me, but she said nothing. Without Creeper, she couldn’t see anything.
After I Dug out a suitable crawlspace, I advanced into the cavity. The glow of Presence irritated them, making me feel guilty over threatening cowering creatures. The queen stood at only level 8. Her guards amounted to half of that. They wouldn’t even give experience.
I cast Animal Communion to no avail. The insects weren’t aware enough to form coherent thoughts. I tried Animal Empathy to set them at ease, although it was probably too late to generate goodwill. The ants relaxed their posture.
I cast Detect Magic. Like breathing, I used this spell almost reflexively and spammed it whenever I entered a new room area. Several glowing objects lay half-buried in refuse.
We saw three rings—a Ring of Strength +10 and a Ring of Stamina +5. The third ring had a longer description.
Item
Circle of Temperance
Rarity
Epic (orange)
Description
Level 29 ring
Wearer reduces temperature changes on their person by up to 100 degrees.
For an orange item, this seemed weak. 100-degree temperature swings affected environmental changes. Miros didn’t have snowy regions, and becoming overheated in a desert wasn’t dangerous to anyone with half of my spells or abilities. And 100-degree drops were nothing to fire or lava, whose 4-digit readings would still burn through me.
As if that wasn’t enough, a rotten and rusted suit of armor cradled two magic items in perfect condition.
Item
Hammer of Might
Rarity
Masterwork (green)
Description
Level 32 mithril bludgeoning weapon
+6 strength
+50 armor penetration
The weapon had an intriguing new stat—armor penetration. I focused on the word, and a definition appeared. Armor penetration assigned a certain amount of damage to a target before considering its armor.
At first, I thought it added 50 more damage, which would have been insane. Instead, the first 50 damage inflicted by this weapon ignored the target’s armor. It meant little against a squishy class, but tankier players depended on armor. The item included +6 damage per hit—pretty good for a single-handed weapon.
Item
Wall of Might
Rarity
Masterwork (green)
Description
Level 34 mithril shield
+3 strength
+45 armor
+10 rigor
Rigor showed another new system that mitigated damage against a single opponent. It worked in the opposite way of armor penetration. This shield ignored the first 10 damage from incoming attacks. If an enemy caused 9 damage, I would take no damage. If it caused 15 damage, I took 5.
On top of rigor, the shield gave 45 armor, more than any item we’d seen, including our mithril chest plates. It gave such an improvement that I couldn’t believe its rarity only rated green.
I wondered how these ants could have killed someone with 10 rigor, since their painful bites did only 1-5 damage. I guess I would never know. Perhaps someone fell to their death, and the ants carried their items here.
Luckily, the magic items weren’t buried so far into the space that I couldn’t retrieve them without disturbing the remaining ants. The rings lay further in, so I used Move Object to pluck them from the soil.
“I’m going to trust you guys to leave us alone. Good luck in rebuilding your colony.” The last thing I withdrew was Fabulosa’s glow stone. Ants didn’t need nightlights.
“Booty! We got booty!” I showed Fabulosa the rings and arms after backing out of the crawlspace.
Fabulosa inspected the magic items. “I reckon you get dibs since I’m getting a celestial core out of this.”
“It’s only a theory that there’s a relic down here. We can’t be sure.”
“Can you even destroy it? Do you have enough mana?”
I nodded. “I’ve got a higher intelligence thanks to leveling. But I can’t finish the rune until we discover this relic‘s true name. I only needed a 100-point mana potion, and I made batches with my alchemy set.”
Fabulosa gestured at the items. “Go ahead, pick.”
I snatched the +5 stamina ring without hesitation. An extra 50 health could mean the difference between winning and losing this game. By comparison, everything else provided conditional bonuses.
Fabulosa grinned. “I reckoned you’d grab that one. I guess I’ll take this.” She took the +10 strength ring. “I can’t pass on extra damage.”
“We know each other too well.” I took the shield next. Fabulosa had just got a Reinforced Tortoise Shell from the minotaur, so she didn’t need an upgrade. With the stamina ring, this shield might give me better durability against nasty monsters. With Fabulosa’s offensive capabilities, it made sense that I played the role of the tank.
My partner surprised me by waving her hand at the hammer. Its mithril metal wouldn’t interfere with primal spells.
“You don’t want the hammer?”
“I would, but it’s too easy. If I don’t force myself to use the Phantom Blade, I’ll never get good at it. Besides, you get a matching set.” Her decisions showed more grit than I expected. She didn’t usually make long-term decisions. Apparently, I didn’t know her as well as I thought.
That gave me an idea. I picked up both weapons to see if I received any set bonuses. And extra +1 strength and +5 armor appeared in their item descriptions. The hammer and shield equated Fabulosa’s +10 strength ring.
“Wow, The Book of Dungeons has set bonuses!”
“That clinches it, then. You keep ‘em both. Grats. You can have the Circle of Temperance, too. I’m out of slots for rings.”
“My stamina ring fills my last ring slot, too.” I experimented by putting it on but didn’t get a buff that regulated my body temperature. It felt wasteful storing a ring in my inventory, but the Circle of Temperance was a utility ring. It would be game-changing in certain situations but had no bearing in combat.
“Thanks, Fab.” Even with set bonuses, the hammer wouldn’t become my go-to weapon, but it delivered blunt damage. I’d been without a solid bludgeoning attack since I’d given the dwarves my Blackriver Cudgel and Charitybelle’s siege hammer.
Fabulosa snapped her fingers. “The game treated the ants as a single creature—a swarm. I got 45 experience for them.”
“That’s better than the event log filling up with messages about getting zero points of experience.”
“I’m too close to level 28 to be cheated by weedy critters.” Fabulosa turned her attention to the temple’s unexplored doorways. “Three doors down, three to go.”