Part XII: The Trap Slams Shut
‘You did what?’ Val asked.
Lore blinked back at her, his face pale, and he shrugged—though I could tell he didn’t meant it. ‘I let it go.’
We’d woken in camp the morning after our meeting with Niamh to find a notable absence—the creature we’d crossed continents to find, one that we’d spilled blood over. We’d put in weeks of work, all for Lore to let the depth raider go.
‘And what, in all that is holy in Alterra, encouraged you to do such a thing?’ Corminar asked. ‘Is there something left unresolved between us? Do you wish my debt to go unpaid?’
Lore shrugged again. ‘It wouldn’t’ve been right, giving the creature away like that.’
‘That was the whole point of doing all this!’ Val exclaimed.
At my side, perched next to me on a fallen tree that for whatever reason hadn’t been taken away with the rest, Arzak raised her eyebrows. Like me, she was more resigned to Lore having done what he’d done than the other two.
‘It was… what’s the word? Sentient?’
‘All animals are sentient!’
Lore raised his hands in protest. ‘Well, I dunno, the other word, then! He was smart. Smarter than humans!’
‘Smarter than you, maybe,’ Val snapped, and then her tense shoulders softened; she’d realised she’d gone too far, there. ‘Sorry. Look. We put a lot of work into this, so you can imagine we’d be a bit miffed, yeah? And now how are we going to pay off the Red Thorn? Unless you want to go back to us getting them a Mala, which… no. What’s the plan here?’
‘Sentience aside,’ Lore started.
‘Sapience,’ Arzak called out to correct him.
‘Sapience aside, what was your plan? Take it to meet a Player? I think that would’ve set it off, wouldn’t it? Niamh is strong enough that if we brought it anywhere nearby…’
‘He has a point, Val,’ I called out. ‘Unless you were planning on checking it in to an inn for a few nights or something.’
Val shot me a glare. ‘Not helping.’
It was my turn to hold up my hands—in surrender.
‘It said it’d come back…’ Lore mumbled.
‘What was that?’
‘Nothing.’
‘It said it would come back?’ Val repeated. ‘It doesn’t speak!’
‘It does, just not in words.’
‘That’s what speaking is! Words!’
Lore, looking increasingly distressed, shrugged again. ‘Well it still said things! With pictures! What, did you think all those weird dreams you been having was just us not eating so well?’
There was a moment of pause.
‘...How do you know about the dreams?’ Val asked.
‘Styk told me.’
I held up my hands again in pre-emptive surrender.
‘Styk…’ Val growled.
‘I meant, he told me about his dreams,’ Lore corrected himself. ‘You just talk in your sleep, Val.’
I nodded my agreement. ‘Loudly.’
‘Look,’ Lore said, ‘I don’t regret what I done. You can shout at me all you want, but it’s done now. He popped away. Teleported. We’ll just have to find some other way of paying the Thorn back.’
‘After we kill Niamh,’ Val added. ‘I’m not letting her roam free any longer. You’ve seen the damage she’s done already.’
‘Sure, after we do that.’
They both turned to Corminar. ‘You on board?’ the witch asked.
‘I don’t suppose that I have any other choice, do I?’
‘You do not.’
‘Then, yes, Val, I am on board.’
Lore looked relieved.
‘Good. I’ll get us some scouts, then,’ Val said, and she knelt to place her fingertips on the mossy around. Her hands and eyes began to glow with that familiar green tint of Witchcraft magicks.
It wasn’t long until our scouts arrived.
* * *
‘Witch!’ the soldier roared, finger pointing at the glowing Val, her wolf scouts circling around her.
We’d done well to avoid notice, even in the barren, deforested landscape, but we hadn’t been expecting anyone to be in what had looked like an abandoned barn. The two men in Goldmarch armour who exited the barn, though, were a low level, and both Arzak and I were out of sight.
I nodded for Arzak to take one of the soldiers while I took the other, and we both crept up on the two soldiers before they could charge into battle with Val. With my level two Stealth Attack passive and my Execution ability activated, I was able to take down my enemy in just a little over one hit—the first attack having alerted him to my presence but done enough damage to him that the fight was already over. Arzak, for her part, had no trouble, but that didn’t stop Corminar backing her up with a well-placed arrow.
At long last, this one enemy was enough to tip my Knifework progression over the edge.
Goldmarch scout defeated!
Knifework — +1,500xp
Knifework increased to level 35!
Base Points Gained — +1 DEX, +1 STR, +2 Free Points (VIT/DEX/STR)
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Ability selection unlocked
Select an ability from the list below:
Val must have caught me smiling, because she asked, ‘You OK?’
‘People who hate witches are really starting to get on my nerves,’ I replied.
‘Tell me about it. Get yourself a new ability?’
‘Oh yes.’
Option 1: Ricochet (Knifework) — Throw blades at hard surface for half your Stamina power to ricochet. Thrown blades retain 70% of speed with each bounce. Damage scales with [DEX].
It was an ability that I’d chosen in a previous life, and one that had come in handy on numerous occasions. Back then, I hadn’t had any Worldbending abilities, and so I’d leant on this and Throw as my only real ranged attacks. In fact, if my memory was correct, this ability had been my very last attack the first time I’d faced down Jacob, Lev and Tokas—that spoke for itself in terms of how much I used it.
But then again, it was the very same change—having Worldbending magicks now—that made this less useful. Not only did I have other options for range, namely either portalling myself next to an enemy or dropping them through a portal, I also hadn’t invested in Dexterity to anywhere near the same extent as I had previously. And why would I? Worldbending had naturally become my primary skill tree, and I had my Mana-Fuelled ability that allowed me to use mana in place of stamina for my Knifework attacks. Because Ricochet’s damage scaled with Dexterity, this wasn’t such a good choice this time around.
There, see? I do sometimes learn.
Hidden condition met! Alternative ability choice unlocked.
Option 2: Needle Blade (Knifework) [Requires: Needlework level 10] — You may use needles as weapons, in place of knives. Needles deal [-90%] damage, but when dipped in poison, that poison is [+100%] effective.
It was an interesting selection for sure, and would have been more interesting should I have had an Alchemy skill tree. I could “borrow” Corminar’s poisons, obviously, but that wasn’t quite the same. If I was going to rely on something else for an ability to be effective, I wanted that something else to be fully under my control. I kept this one in the back of my mind as a possibility as I looked at the third and final option.
Hidden condition met! Alternative ability choice unlocked.
Option 3: Knifestorm (Knifework) [Requires: Dexterity over 90] — Replaces ‘Slice’. Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
It was always nice to get two hidden ability choices on one level-up, but that did always make the decision harder. I’d been given the choice to select this ability early on in a previous life, and I hadn’t picked it. I think I’d only ever been given the choice once more, and on that level there was another ability that was more vital. It might have even been Ricochet.
This time, though, it felt like the right decision to select this ability. I didn’t have many other ways of dealing with enemies if I ever got surrounded. If these enemies were so close that they were in arm’s reach, I couldn’t even escape through a portal, as they would fall through with me.
After one last look over the other two option to check that I hadn’t missed anything, I locked in my choice.
Ability unlocked — Knifestorm
Knifestorm (Knifework) — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
I felt immediately better for it, as though my range and versatility of abilities was growing with every week that passed. I didn’t worry all that much that I was only level 15, now; I’d been efficient with my ability growth, so maybe that wasn’t all that big of a deal.
I concentrated once more on the road ahead, Val’s eyes glowing green as she sensed the presence of our commandeered wolf scouts. Corminar and Lore were just behind her, playing a game where Corminar had to guess what object in sight Lore was thinking of—so far, the answers had been, “road”, “tree stump” and “sky”. And Arzak was at the rear of the pack, in theory making sure that nobody sneaked up on us, but in practice still gazing lovingly on the sword I’d given her.
Suddenly, Val stopped.
‘What is it?’ I asked, hurrying to her side.
‘Over the next hill,’ she said. ‘Niamh’s destination.’
‘Where?’ Lore asked. ‘There’s nothing here. Nothing on the map.’
Val shook her head. ‘The wolves… they don’t have a word for it. The closest they have is… “sea beasts”.’
Anticipation—or was it dread?—was heavy in my stomach as we silently strode up to the crest of this next hill. When we got there, when we saw what lay before us, suddenly everything we’d seen over the past few months fell into place. It was like the last piece of the puzzle had been put down, only we’d not been able to see the full picture until it was amongst the rest of the pieces.
Below us, along the coast of the Iron Sea, was a camp of shipyards—recently built, and of a scale unlike anything I’d seen before. A makeshift fort in the middle looking down upon each individual shipyard. Some ships in these bays were only half built, some were of this very moment having glowing blue and orange enchantments placed upon them.
And most of the ships? They were already asea.
The mass deforestation. The creatures forced from the iron sea. Both of them made sense now.
The timber was going here, from all across the Gentle Tundras, building a fleet like nobody in the western continents had ever seen before. And Niamh, with her Trapper class, had been overseeing strong enchantments to be placed upon these ships, to make them stronger still. It was this power that had disturbed the cephalopors, and the merfolk, and all the other creatures that rumour had it had emerge from the Iron Sea.
Here, before us, was Niamh’s true plan.
We’d thought we’d been so clever, disrupting the food imports to weaken Niamh’s hold on Aptleed. But we’d disrupted only those that had come via land, when so much more came via sea. There was an elegance to Niamh’s plan: just what we’d been doing, except on a much, much grander scale.
We thought we’d won the battle for the Tundras, but the truth was that they’d only just begun.
"Styk"
Level 15 Bladespinner
Base Stats:
Vitality — 40
Intelligence — 147
Dexterity — 89
Strength — 70
Wisdom — 55
Charisma — 33
Skills:
Worldbending — Level 41
Knifework — Level 35
Stealth — Level 17
Needlework — Level 12
Identification — Level 11
Abilities:
Stab III — Put your weight behind your wielded blade and force the tip through tougher hides and armour. Damage scales on [STR], increased by an additional 50%.
Execution II — Attack a target while undetected for +200% damage.
Closed Reach — Bend reality to narrow the gap between blade and target by up to 8 inches. Uses mana.
Mana-Fuelled — Passive. Optionally, use mana in place of stamina to activate Knifework abilities.
Knifestorm — Lash out at all surrounding enemies in a tornado of blades, using either one or two daggers. All enemies with arm’s reach receive physical damage worth weapon’s base damage and additional damage scaling on [STR].
Local Portal II — Create a portal to another location within current range of sight or within a ten yard radius. Uses mana/second.
Portal Slice — Passive. Portals can now be spawned within non-sentient objects. Doing so slices through all objects that are not reinforced by magic.
Tamed Portals — Passive. Increased efficiency of portal magicks means that your portal glow is reduced by 50%, making them less likely to be detected by enemies.
Ash Husk — Convert your flesh to ash, strengthening it against flame for ten minutes. Gain 50% resistance to fire attacks.
Shrill Perimeter — Create a perimeter wall of 20 foot radius, invisible to all but those adept in magicks. If an enemy crosses this perimeter, this spell releases the shriek of a banshee.
Warped Shield — Passive. If an enemy strikes you with a low-level melee weapon, Warp Shield automatically activates to open a portal that deflects this attack. You must not have any portals currently active. Uses mana on activation.
Pocket Worlds — Open and access pocket dimensions. Storage capacity of summoned pocket worlds scales with [INT] of creator.
Stealth Attack II — Passive. 80% boost to damage when unnoticed by enemy.
In Plain Sight — When activated, you have a heightened abilitiy to hide in plain sight, and are able to spot opportunities to break from combat at a higher rate. Scales on [WIS].
Stitch — Create a basic stitch in common fabrics. Ability scales on [CHA].
Cloth Armour — Craft a cloth armour of higher quality, dependent on materials, time and skill level.
Active Effects:
Legacy of Sisyphus:
XP gain increased by +900%