“An empty jar, some weird goggles, and … a pouch full of dried fruit slices,” Brent said after he’d opened up the chest.
Micah smiled and called, “Dibs!” from below. He’d had to climb down to get his backpack and was headed back.
He got a glare in response.
“On some fruit?”
He’d meant it as a joke, but he got why his teammate was in a poor mood. They should have at least waited for him to eat his own food before they’d rushed in—or communicate better at all. None of them had even considered it except Jason.
He seemed to shake it off, either way, and got a plain mason jar out of the chest.
“Let me see,” Jason said and leaned over him. He held a pair of goggles to his eyes and looked around. They were dark, leathery, and covered the sides of his face. They looked too flexible to be workshop goggles. More like they were meant for …
Swimming?
Micah glanced at the lake. Alex was keeping an eye out for them, but he didn’t trust it.
The chest wasn’t Salamander wood, unfortunately, and none of them had heard of any properties worth mentioning on this floor. Kyle surprisingly remembered their discussion and got his axe. It looked like he let his frustrations out even as the cuts he made were as clean as they would get.
The rest of their loot were eight small fire crystals, a large one the Kobold had kept in a net on its side, its own crystal, and its clothes. Ryan distributed them among the group based on a rough estimate—in case any of them lost their backpacks like Micah had in the river.
“Are we keeping the rags?” Jason asked.
“Might be enchanted with fire resistance.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, just ask Micah.” He pointed and headed down to give Alex his share.
When Micah walked up, Brent asked, “How would you know?”
“‘Cause I’m wearing one right now.” He lifted up his armor to show them. It was the shirt he had gotten from the Kobold during the entrance exam. It might not fit him for long, though. Already, the fabric felt tight around his armpits. He chose to see that as a good thing though.
“That looks scratchy.”
“It is scratchy. It’s why I wear a layer underneath, but … layers are layers.” Even just thinking about it made him want to take it off. He could imagine the heat it kept. He could see it too, if he looked. He didn’t.
Brent grinned.
“Screw you.”
It got a chuckle out of him.
Jason slipped the Kobold’s shirt on next to them. It barely reached his stomach and stretched at the seams. He began to twist and poke places in the spitting image of a [Tailor] at work.
He has [Basic Mending], right?
He glanced at Brent and saw the same comment die on his lips. The guy waved the jar at him instead. “What about this? Anything register on your weird sight?”
He frowned and tried to fix his eyes on it, hands slowly reaching. The wind essence seemed to pass through the glass, lid and body.
“Gimme,” he said and snatched it. Micah shook it some more. It hadn’t just been his eyes. The wind essence was ignoring the glass as if it wasn’t there. He leaned a little closer on a hunch and took a deep breath—not a magical one; just to see what would happen.
The air inside the jar flowed out just as much as the air around him. New air flowed in to fill it.
“I, uhm—”
“Yes?”
“Air passes through,” he said, “I think. Like, for keeping bugs without needing to pop holes in the lid?”
The small excitement on Brent’s face fell. “You’re kidding.”
Speaking of the lid, it looked more like a hardened gel than true glass. He rapped his knuckles on it. Firm.
“We can get it appraised when we get out of here,” Ryan reminded them and handed Micah a crystal.
“No, I think I know what it’s for,” he said and looked to the lake. “We got a pair of swimming goggles and this. So, I mean, uhm—” This was going to look so stupid, but he had to do it anyway. To prove his point. He set the jar against his lips until it was airtight and took a deep breath.
It worked.
Jason’s eyes went wide and he froze, Kobold’s shirt on his arms in the middle of taking it off. “Are you telling me that’s a jar of water breathing?”
Kyle paused his axe-murdering spree to glance over. “Seriously?”
He quickly pulled the jar away and wiped his mouth to find his words again. “Uh, no. Not a jar of water breathing. A jar of a single breath? Or maybe half a breath, guessing by the size of it …”
Frowns all around, and some people caught on quicker than others. There was no air to refill it under water.
Ryan of all people offered, “It might filter like my cloak does?”
Micah gave him an unsure look. You got your cloak from defeating Maria. We found this in a second-floor chest.
He shrugged. “Just saying.”
“Only way to find out is to try it, right?” Jason asked, sounding like he wanted to dive right in.
Ryan reached out. “Give them here, then. The goggles, too. I already have a cloak of water breathing so I should be fine if something goes wrong.”
“You what?” Kyle asked.
“I have a cloak of water breathing,” he repeated. “You know? The kids’ jacket you made fun of me for wearing?” He grabbed the yellow coif running down his neck and flapped it.
He wore his helmet and outermost layer of armor over the oversized rain jacket to keep it in place. It still poked out from under the armor in places, bundled toward his sleeves, or hung low, like over his legs and armpits.
Kyle had made fun of him for it during practice.
Micah thought it gave him an almost fairytale-like appearance. Especially with his soap bubble bark shield and ornamental, orange hue spear. And its tassel. Ryan had traded in the earthy browns and greens for something more colorful. It made him look straight out of a picture book.
He hadn’t said anything yet, though. Micah wasn’t sure how he would take it. He thought it might go well because Ryan liked stories, but he was also weird with compliments … which was annoying.
Micah wanted to be able to compliment people.
“You said it was waterproof and had a lesser ward,” Kyle said, “not that it grants you water breathing.”
“Adaptive ward,” Ryan corrected him.
“Oh, yeah.” He rolled his eyes. “‘Cause that screams water breathing.”
He ignored him and turned on Alex, heading down the path. “Can you give me a light?”
“I can, but it might not work out the way you want it to.”
“Oh, let me!” Jason called. “[Light] is the only proper spell I know. You have a bunch of others, right? Saves mana.”
“Wait, are you going to just dive into the lake, now?” Micah asked.
He paused and glanced back. “Yes?”
Alex raised a hand. “I was actually going to suggest you let me do it.”
He gave him a look like he wanted to ask why so Micah cut in before they could get off-topic, “But what if there is something in the lake?”
“Yeah, that’s why,” Alex said. “I have [Shape Water]. I might be better suited to defend myself.”
“No, I mean—” How was Micah supposed to explain this? The didn’t seem like they had noticed. “I don’t think those goggles and jar are for a lake” he tried. “I think they are for this lake. I think we were meant to dive in there.”
He got odd looks all around.
“‘Meant to’?” Alex asked.
Micah started to feel embarrassed and turned it into a scowl. “No. Not like that. And I don’t want to argue beliefs. I’m just saying, why would treasure chest on a barren floor have a makeshift diving kit? I think floors”—he stressed the word—”in general have some kind of design. This might be part of one.”
Jason nodded earnestly, a hint of a smile on his face.
The others looked wary but they didn’t argue his point.
“We still have to check it out,” Ryan said.
“And I still say I’m best equipped to deal with the water,” Alex told him. It wasn’t contentious.
“I have the water breathing jacket.”
“Right,” he nodded. “Could you lend it to me?”
“No.”
“Hm?”
Ryan wouldn’t quite meet his eyes for a moment, but then put on a grumpy face. “I can’t. Sorry.”
Alex smiled and shifted his weight. “C’mon, man. I’m not going to run off with it. You can just lend it to me for a moment.”
He shook his head. The others seem to realize he wasn’t going to budge on this.
“So first he takes on the entire room on his own,” Kyle called on his way down, “and now he won’t even share equipment with his teammates.”
Ryan took a deep breath and looked up, rolling his head as if it were his eyes, and admitted. “I promised my dad I would wear it.”
Micah expected a jab from Kyle—he got a light-hearted chuckle from Brent—but the guy just shut up.
“Oh,” Alex said and gestured at the lake, “well then by all means.”
They still had to post guards and test the waters, but then he put on the goggles—it only made him look more storybook—and took a few steps back. He ran forward to dive into the lake. The splash was almost louder than Kyle chopping wood. He turned into a blurred shape under the surface.
They watched him dive toward the wall and Jason pushed his light out a little to keep sight.
When Ryan stopped, he suddenly started struggling instead.
“Shit,” Micah said and raised his slingshot. “He needs help.”
“Is something attacking him?” Brent asked.
Alex knocked an arrow, though Micah had no idea what they would do. Fire into the water? At Ryan?
They hadn’t thought this through.
Before anyone could react, Ryan breached the surface near the wall and took in deep breaths.
“Ryan!”
“Alright—” he croaked and coughed. “I’m alright. I just screwed up and ended up choking.”
He relaxed.
“Any enemies?” Brent asked.
“Not that I can see. Let me try the jar again.” For some reason, he opened it and poured water out. Had he misunderstood how it was supposed to work? Before Micah could say anything, he dove back under.
He didn’t seem to have any troubles this time. And half a minute later, he waded back out of the lake with water rolling off an invisible shell. When he took off the goggles, they were dry.
“Can’t believe he didn’t get soaked,” Brent complained.
“You can’t breathe in too forcefully,” Ryan said as he showed them the jar, “or you might choke. And the lid lets water in. It surprised me, I thought I was going to end up breathing it. You won’t.”
“Wait, what?”
Ryan handed him the jar. True enough, it was half-filled with water. The gel looked like it had shifted.
Brent frowned. “What’s the point of a leaky jar?”
Micah turned it upside down and it didn’t let the water back out. “It only goes one way?”
“Huh.”
That made it considerably more valuable. Especially if they detached the lid and made a custom-order fit. Two enchantments in one. Or if they broke the jar to custom pieces. He bet he and the other [Alchemists] could find a use for it in the workshop.
Now, he actually wanted to call dibs and bit his tongue. He could discuss this later when they had more things to fight over.
“And one more thing,” Ryan added. “Micah was right. There’s an underwater tunnel in the wall.”
He pointed.
The others stared as they took in the information.
Micah pumped his fist. “Yes!”
The conversation immediately shifted to how they would explore the tunnel. What if the actual guardian was hidden in there? What would it be? Micah had known there had to be more to the fight. Golden screens were supposed to warn of something special.
Kyle argued for exploring the one next to the chest first. What if it led to the third floor? Alex had some good points about doing things in order—if they swam through, they might have to swim back for anything they forgot, and then do it again. How far would the tunnel be? Would they really want to get soaked?
Jason warned them about underwater currents.
“Currents?”
“Yeah. It’s still a river, right? I got swept away by one of those, once. They can get pretty strong and drag you to far-off locations in the Tower.”
Micah knew all too well how powerful a river current could be. It was a good thing to keep in mind.
It was Ryan who had to break them up. “Hold on, guys,” he said and gave Micah a look, You’re getting ahead of yourself. “We’re not done on this floor yet.”
That got two scowls, frowns, and a third scowl in turn out of their team. Only Alex seemed open for anything.
“We discussed this,” Ryan said. “We wanted to collect as much information about the second-floor as possible before moving on. This clearly goes someplace new. We might lose points on the exam.”
“You didn’t actually think we were going to spend the entire day exploring the second floor, did you?” Kyle asked him.
Micah only partially agreed. He tried to change tacts. “What about the guardian? We have to fight it.”
“What about a current?” Ryan asked. “What if we get dragged somewhere we can’t get back from? What about that tunnel up there? This”—he gestured at the room—”is the point forward. We still have work to do back there.” He pointed toward the place they had come from.
Micah noticed a centipede slowly crawling in. He got his slingshot out and killed it. One shot and it was dead. Jason was so kind as to get the crystal and his metal ball back for them.
Right.
He shook his head.
He wanted to agree with Ryan, but he couldn’t. He didn’t want to hamstring himself just so his teammates could keep up. He didn’t want to survey some stupid floor that was way too easy for them. Even if there wasn’t, if this led them someplace new, then—
“Good,” he said. He only convinced himself of it as he said it. A primal part of him balked at the idea, but Micah had learned to push past his fears.
“Good?” Ryan asked, knowing full well what he was thinking. Thankfully, he didn’t engage. “But this was your plan, Micah. You were the most vocal one about what we should do in here.”
“And now I’m saying we should change that plan,” he said. “Shouldn’t that count for something?”
“No. Because you clearly only want to change them based on how you feel right now.”
“Of course, I’m doing that. Aren’t you fed up with this? Three hours of trekking around on rubble, in this heat, collecting samples, and killing weak monsters over and over? I mean, if you want to practice your archery now, you can still do that. It’s a good chance, but I want a challenge. There’s no point in total safety, Ryan. I thought you knew that.”
“Hey,” Kyle said.
“We still have more than two and a half days left,” he grumbled. “I’m not arguing against seeking a challenge, I’m saying we should be patient. Slow and steady wins the race, right? You keep saying that.”
“Oh, screw slow and steady,” Micah balked. “My leg isn’t broken anymore. I can run. I can swim. I want results.” He pointed at the lake and raised his voice with a forced smile. “Look! Results!”
He took a step toward it.
“If you dive into that lake again without consulting me first—” Ryan started and took a step after him.
“Hey!” Kyle snapped as he shoved himself between them. He held an arm out to both their chests as if he had to keep them apart. “Knock it off, guys. You have to stop fighting.”
They gave him a look.
“We’re not fighting,” Micah said and slapped his arm away. “We’re strategizing out loud.”
“Yeah,” Ryan said, “piss off, Kyle.”
He looked so confused it almost made Micah laugh. He did smile.
“Maybe you should ‘strategize’ with the entire team, then?” Alex suggested.
He was right. This kind of behavior was what had put half of them in a bad mood in the first place.
He took a deep breath. “I want to explore the lake.”
“And you can,” Ryan told him in a calmer voice, “but we have to do things in their proper order.”
“SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!” Brent roared at them. He immediately realized it was too much and chuckled awkwardly. “I meant, uh, what do you want us to do, oh glorious leader … s?”
Sarcasm. Much better.
“I want to explore this floor,” Ryan said, “like we said we would. Stick to the plan, create a semi-expansive map, and find more cardinal directions toward water sources with Jason’s Skill.”
They all turned on Jason, who looked like he had wanted to stay as far from their “strategizing” as possible. “Uhm—”
“Well that’s easy,” Kyle said. “Just point in a few directions, Gale, we’ll note them down and get to exploring the tunnel up there.”
Ryan nodded. “And do that before we explore the lake. It’s the more obvious exit than a hidden tunnel. I want to see where it leads and if we might miss anything if we go the other way.”
“Yeah, but how far do we explore?” Micah started. “I know Jason had saved us a lot of time with his Skill, but—”
“I can’t,” Jason cut in. “Point you in directions of water. Nearby water sources muddle the Skill. Any other bodies of water have to be significantly larger to sense them through. I told you that.”
Oh.
“How far?” Alex asked.
“At least a kilometer away from here. Probably two if you want me to point out more than one with accuracy.”
“Well, shit,” Brent said.
Nicely put.
Alex turned to Ryan, “You want to walk an hour North and back just so we can get some directions on a map? Do you think that’s worth the time investment?”
“That was the plan anyway,” Ryan said, “head in as deep as possible before climbing to the next floor. We would probably still save time this way. But ideally, I would want us to scout out a kilometer or two radius around this spot as well. A map that looks like a bunch of vines is no map at all.”
Micah felt his heart sink. That would take ages for them to finish. They might as well make camp—
“Camp rules,” Kyle said, catching on to the idea a minute before he did.
“What?” Ryan asked.
“Camp rules,” he repeated, as if the word was something that got stuck between his teeth and had to be picked out, “state you can scout in pairs for the purposes of maintaining and defending a camp, rechecking tread ground, personal hygiene, and a bunch of other shitty little reasons like that. All we have to do is declare this cavern our campgrounds and Gale and someone else can head North for his Skill. At the same time, another pair of us can map out the area. Two birds. One stone. Splat that.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Micah was grinning from ear to ear when he realized, “You read the rules, Kyle?”
“Of course, I freaking read the rules,” he scoffed. “I’m not an idiot. Get your head out of your ass, Stranya.”
He looked at Ryan, still with a smile, and tilted his head as if to ask, Compromise?
Their unofficial leader looked unconvinced. “This cavern isn’t exactly secure. We have two unexplored entrances and—”
“Oh, please,” Kyle interrupted. “You really think the teachers are going to give a damn? Or that other teams aren’t doing this? They’re on our side. They want us to follow the spirit of the rules, not the letter.”
“Two people would be quicker on their own,” Alex agreed. “And we could get a head start here.”
“You don’t know that,” Ryan said. “What if they deduct us points for running off like this?”
“I don’t know that?” Kyle asked, a laugh in his voice. “Have you met Lady Denner? You honestly think she doesn’t want us to bend the rules as much as possible to ease up on the stupid ones they put on her school? She’s just like us, man. She’s worse.”
Every single word of that rang irrefutably true and anyone who had met their principal knew it.
“We still need to be able to justify this,” Ryan said. It sounded like something he could hold on to.
Kyle nodded. “Easy. You just took on what we can only assume, with our limited information, must have been the guardian of this cavern, right? On your own, no less. Wow! What an achievement! What else on this floor could top that? And you’re the highest level [Fighter] on our team. So if you and he head two kilometers off-course, you would be more than qualified to do so, don’t you think?”
It was weird to hear Kyle compliment Ryan—or anyone, really—even if he was doing it as a means to an end. He still sounded annoying as he did. His grin must have looked so punch-worthy to anyone else, but here, he was on their side and Micah couldn’t help but join in.
“You go find water,” Kyle said. He turned to them. “Stranya and I can scout the area with his [Essence Sight]—”
Micah blinked, smile slipping away. “We can?”
“—and the [Guard] and the [Cook] can make camp.”
“Fuck you,” Brent said.
“You know, symbolically,” he said. “Start a little fire or something, stay far away from the water in case tentacles come out and try to drag you under, dress the Salamander we killed, boil some water.”
It sounded like a good plan, actually. It was just frustrating that Kyle of all people had come up with it.
“And when we get back?” Ryan asked, looking like he was struggling with that himself.
“We explore the rest of the area,” Alex joined, “finish the map, explore the tunnel, and then the lake.”
Ryan needed a long moment to nod, but his expression brimmed with conviction. They had him.
“Deal.”
“Screw that,” Brent said. “I’m not staying behind and making camp just because I’m a [Cook]. I’m going scouting. Don’t care if it’s with you, dipshit. I want to kill some monsters and find treasure.”
Micah sighed in relief … until he realized this meant he was missing a chance to ask Kyle about his glove in private. And he had to start a fire.
He turned to Alex. “Don’t you want to go scouting?” Maybe he could get the other guy to stay here.
He seemed unperturbed. “I’m good.”
Dammit.
Ryan slipped off his backpack and checked with Jason to make sure this would be alright with him. He looked awkwardly careful as he strung his bow and counted the quiver. It had been a while since Micah had seen that side of him. They left some of their things to be quicker, and he watched them go, wondering which opportunities he was taking here.
“Hey, Alex?”
“Hm?”
They’d gone the boiling water route, with a can of fire potion, the help of an occasion fire spell, and heat aura Alex layered over Brent’s pot. Just because he didn’t know the spell, he had said, it didn’t mean he couldn’t cobble something make-shift together that would do the job for them.
“You’re, like, an unofficial [Mage], right? I mean, you aced that exam, you said, without having to study?”
“Yeah. Why?”
The lake was still aside from the water flowing in. They kept an eye on it. The cavern itself seemed empty aside from them and the occasional wandering monster. They’d had to shoot down their first Ash Bat.
“Uhm, because I have a Skill,” he said. “It’s called [Kinetic Infusion]. And it lets me cast [Infusion] using kinetic energy instead of thermal energy.”
“Okay?”
“So, uhm … how do I apply that to my other spells?”
That got his attention. “That’s an interesting question.”
His hopes fell. “You don’t know?”
“Oh, no. I do. I know the theory and a little bit through my [Adaptive Lessons], but … I’m assuming your Path doesn’t help you with this kind of spellcasting?”
Micah shook his head. He had tried to figure it a few times on his own after getting the cast off, and even read a few chapters in the library, but always found an excuse to give up. His [Essence Sight] hadn’t helped. There had always been other things to do, like study or train.
“You know that Class spells like yours are complicated, yeah? [Mages] would probably need a while to wrap their heads around them. So you—”
Micah nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I know. They’re halfway between summoning and enchanting, and use a secondary energy source to work, so they’re like component spells. But I have the Skill for one of them, and the spellscripts are really similar. Shouldn’t I just … be able to copy it?”
Even though he asked, Micah had tried just that and it hadn’t worked. He hadn’t known where to start.
Alex smiled. “Yes. That was what I was going to suggest, if you had let me finish.”
“Oh.”
He shrunk down a little, locked his mouth, and threw the key.
“We’re going to have to do this by hand, then. You already mentioned the most important part. [Infusion] is a component spell. You need heat to make it work. Or kinetic energy. So if you want to apply the same switch to another spell, you need to— Well, normally I would suggest meditate on it, but you don’t have a matching Path.”
Micah shook his head again.
“Instead, you’re going to have to practice. A lot.” He shifted where he sat and began to get some stuff out of his pack. “Here, why don’t we try it so you get what I mean? You can do more later.”
He got a bottle and dropped it into the water, then started layering it with mana again to heat it up. “Do you know how to cast [Infusion] silently yet? I mean, by taking active control of the mana?”
Micah nodded.
“Great. That simplifies things.”
Micah got what he was doing and told him when the bottle was hot enough. He fished it back out by the neck and pushed a bundle of tea leaves in before handing it to him.
“Take it slow,” he said. “Close your eyes as if you were meditating—even if you don’t have the Path. Feel the way the mana moves, but especially focus on the way it interacts with the heat in—”
“Uhm, my [Essence Sight] might help with that?”
“Okay,” he said. “Sure. Try it that way. Just make sure you focus on the way your mana acts once it comes in contact with it. Its behavior will change and you need to find out why.”
Thankfully, Alex glanced around so Micah felt calm enough he could focus on what he was doing.
[Infusion], he thought and wrenched control of the spell. He guided it through the tea leaves like an invisible river and focussed his entire sight on the heat essence in the water. Not to flare, but to observe. What was he supposed to see? Whatever it was, he must have missed it. The spell came and went and the water turned halfway to tea. Micah had no idea what happened.
He looked up.
“Try it again?” Alex asked. “As I said, there will be a moment when your mana changes. Find it. Focus on that.”
He sighed and looked back down, preparing the spell. Focus? On what? He couldn’t see anything happen. He couldn’t see mana like that. So what was he supposed to look at? Or … was it feel?
That did the trick.
Micah guided the spell again but took his hands off a little bit to feel what it would do. The mana shifted to take the form of the heat essence. Like molten metal filling a mold or— No. More like an artist tracing the lines of a picture, a student copying their instructor, dust caught in a breeze.
An imitation.
And it overtook the original like a beast and swallowed it whole.
Affinity.
It was snapping from zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye. From pure mana to … not heat mana, but “heat as a part of the process of natural infusion” mana. The moment passed just as quickly.
Micah shifted where he sat on the floor and tried again with what was left.
[Infusion].
It was like it tested its way toward something, slowly copied it, and when it had found its footing, overtook it in an instant. An imposter that was better than the original because it had more potential. Spells could do anything. Mana would have no troubles forcing the slow process of tea-brewing to happen in an instant. And due to its nature, forcing it to be magical was no problem either.
It was almost like the alchemical part was just an accident. The side effect of a supercharged spell. It might have seemed crude to him, had he been able to think of a better alternative.
Was this what other [Alchemists] figured out from their Path?
“Do you need to try again?” Alex asked, holding his hand out as if to take the bottle.
“No.” He shook his head. “No, I’m good.” Alex had given him everything he needed. Micah could take it from here.
He shook the bottle and cast, [Kinetic Infusion].
That was harder this time. He couldn’t see “kinetic essence,” if it even existed. Alex told him to maybe try closing his eyes and it helped. But slowly, Micah got a feel for the way mana copied and subsumed the flow of force that would normally infuse even normal tea over time.
He wondered if that was how force spells worked. And component spells in general. Mimicry. Or maybe theft was a better word.
He did it until he felt the onset of a headache and had to take a break. Alex slapped him on the shoulder and complimented him, but told him to take it easy in case he needed to cast spells later.
He could always practice more later.
Still, Micah thanked him with a smile. He had a starting point, now. He just needed to practice until he could cast [Kinetic Dissolve].
It took almost two hours for Ryan and Jason to come back with three more rough estimates—West-West-South, North, North-East-East. Micah put his watch away to keep it safe and got ready.
They split up and mapped out the surrounding area where Brent and Kyle had left off. Jason lit up when they found a pile of rubble and used his pickaxe and spade to dig through. That changed when a swarm of insects shot out to attack them, but was back in full force when they found a small treasure chest.
Even Ryan looked a little smug, though the contents weren’t that exciting: A large waterskin full of distilled water, a bag of cut crystals made to look like gemstones—Micah had to convince them they weren’t actual gemstones—and a handheld old-fashioned lantern they couldn’t find out if it was enchanted or not. Micah guessed not.
They’d take what they could get.
The chest was scratched and battered so they dropped it off at Kyle’s to cut into pieces. The wood wasn’t all that valuable and they couldn’t carry empty chests around for two days, so they would carry them in a bundle and burn or toss them as needed.
When they finished the map, it was finally time to explore the tunnel up, then.
Micah and Ryan were reluctantly placed in the front by the others because of their scouting abilities. They proceeded in single file, weapons out. Where the broad and blocky tunnels below had looked Tower-made, like the tunnels of the old Salamander’s Den with mined edges, these looked new.
Short, narrow, winding, imperfect. Micah’s mind balked at all the little flaws he spotted like a Guidance Skill whispering in his ear. This work had been shoddy, rushed, greedy.
When they met the first intersection pointing in three different heights, he understood. These tunnels were the long fingers of greedy hands grasping ever deeper in a search for something. He had no idea what, but he did know who. And they adjusted their tone as they crept.
When Ryan warned them, they stood against the walls and waited in suspense. The pale Kobold almost walked past them. It didn’t look like any he’d seen before, not red and colorful, but tan with too many sharp edges. Ryan threw an empty sack over its head and yanked it closer.
Micah lifted its shirt and targeted a rough estimate on where vitals might be. It burst into smoke and the crystals fell on the second sack they had laid out below. Metallic with blue spots.
It wasn’t the only one around.
The tunnels went left, right, at an incline, decline, ended in dead-ends and piles of rubble, spiraled upward, led into caverns, had holes in the ground you had to jump over with care, as the ceiling wasn’t high. Or there were holes overhead in which shadows rushed by.
Some of the tunnels were darker even than the Lost Mines. Some were brilliantly lit in red crystal veins.
They didn’t need Ryan’s ears, eventually. They could hear them in the distance. He needed a second to tell his heartbeat it wasn’t Maria. He had seen the same hesitation on Ryan’s face.
Too few. Too slow.
Still, the two of them shared a look and Micah whispered, “Forest valley?”
He nodded grimly.
The others reacted. Kyle slapped his arm and gestured for them to walk back a few meters to be safe.
“You guys have to stop doing that,” Brent whispered. “You need to communicate with the rest of us. We’re your teammates, too.”
Micah nodded. “I know. I didn’t mean to.”
“What were you trying to say?”
“When we were in the Tower, after we fell through a golden screen, we didn’t just see a single room with a guardian in it,” Micah told them. “We fell into an entire forest valley. There was a proper river, and a lake, other monsters, and cliff sides all around. It was the size of an actual valley.”
“The entire forest was the guardian’s ‘room’,” Ryan told them.
Comprehension lit up in their eyes and Micah put a few thoughts together in his own. What if that Kobold they had fought had just been a guard posted there to warn the others? How would they know?
“You think the same thing holds true here?” Jason asked, excitement thrumming in his voice.
“Maybe.”
This was only the second— No, third floor.
The guy gripped his sword tighter and leaned forward as if he wanted to go running off right then.
“Then where’s the guardian?” Brent asked, thinking along the same lines.
Micah glanced back. They would have to find it, in this active mine they had stumbled into.
In the distance, pickaxes hit stone.
----------------------------------------
The Kobold charged him with a pickaxe. Micah kneed it in the chest and shoved it downhill before it could even attack. It didn’t fall far. He thrust down as he crouched low and kept an eye out for the centipedes on the walls. Only two. No feelers hiding behind rocks? None on the ceiling?
Good.
He let go of his sword, sunk a knife in one from a distance, and charged the other. A slash for part of its face. A thrust into its exposed underbelly. He needed to drag it along to finish it off. As long as his arm, they were stubborn like that. The other was a coil of segments around the knife. He hacked it in half and got insect blood all over his blade as a reward.
Great. A fully-formed pile of insect mush. Just what he needed. It smelled like it would attract flies and make plants wither.
Crystals and pickaxes dotted the ground but he had no time to pick them up. A sound like a wall crumbling announced the flood of stones that tumbled down the way, strong enough to knock his legs out from under him. He hid in a recess, pushing himself up the wall like a doorway.
“Landslide!”
It was the best signal they could find for their stupid traps they kept on shoving at them.
These Kobolds didn’t have fire magic to aid them, but they did have the familiarity of their mines on their side while it just looked like a mess of jumbled webs to the rest of them. They constantly had to look over their shoulders.
Micah had already switched sword for slingshot and leaned around to snap a shot into one of the two Kobold’s faces. The other looked surprised to see him up there instead of on the ground.
Can’t do that, huh? Their legs were too short.
He was about to climb down when he felt something crawl up his leg and toward his back.
Oh, no. Oh nononononono—
He fell down the wall, hit his ass, and it still didn’t shake the thing off. He scrambled up and slapped himself all over, arched his back, twisted, and tried to find it before it could find a way into his clothes, all the while having to check to make sure nothing would sneak up on him.
Whip Spider.
He found, grabbed, and crushed it just as it stung the side of his neck—thanking his ancestors gloves had been invented—then threw it to the ground and stomped it to death for good measure.
He heaved. Was this what it felt like to have a heart attack? His neck stung and felt itchy.
“Whip Spiders in the stones!” he called back. “Be careful!”
“I know!” came the frustrated response from someone who had met the same fate. Jason. There was still a smile in there, too. He was enjoying this.
Micah snapped another shot at the Kobold as he ducked back out. A flash of light, barely a wisp. Another was brave enough to charge him and it got two shots to the face and a sword to the knee for its efforts. He side-stepped its stumble and finished it off.
He could still hear the others pushing the next pile of stones toward the top of the hill, stacking those on top that fell off. He didn’t have time to hide in recesses all day. He went after them.
Another charged when he got too close and he blocked its arm with his shield so it couldn’t bring the pick down. He stuck his sword through its potato-sack shirt at the same time.
Micah winced. If it was at all enchanted, he would pay for that later. He doubted it, though.
Instead of dying right away, the monster slipped the pickaxe up to drop on his head. He barely ducked out of the way when it still hit his shoulder. It wasn’t metal, but even stone smarted.
“Seriously?” he asked, rubbing it just below the sting.
The smoke didn’t answer.
When he finally came around the corner, Ryan had already killed the fourth and last of them.
“Oh, hey. Where did you reappear from?”
“The side tunnel looped around,” he said, pointing down the path. There was a curve near the end. He mimed a circle.
“Cool.”
No wonder why they had kept getting ambushed from behind.
He was about to head on when Ryan grabbed his shoulder and held him back. Micah winced and he let go.
The shower of stones that fell from above would have been worse. A Kobold snarled on the other side of the pitch black when it missed. They had better eyes and most of these winding tunnels were dark.
“Screw you!” Micah shouted up before glancing back. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Want a boost?”
“Gladly.”
“One, two, three—”
Ryan pushed him up through the hole. The Kobold’s surprised face said all he needed to know, Are they allowed to do that?
Its blue crystal on the ground was its answer.
Ryan followed him up. They dispatched a cluster of insects that probably would have swarmed them had they walked past—had they assumed the tunnel was safe after one trap. He said they, but Ryan’s burning spear did most of the work, really. Even when he couldn’t hit a bug in the near darkness, the flames shooting out the side did it for him.
Micah busied himself with the Kobolds instead.
A second pile of rocks stood nearby. They kicked it down like mean teenagers destroying a sandcastle.
They’d only been gone for two minutes when they climbed back down and found three new enemies on the hill they’d left. They really weren’t happy with other people in their halls, were they?
One got a hit in against Micah’s shield and he grunted as it pushed him into the wall. That definitely put a chip in the wood. It wasn’t even his shield. He was borrowing it from the school.
Ryan avenged him.
“SILVER, FREAKING— DAMMIT! ARGH!” Brent roared in the distance. “I hate these fucking spiders!”
One more person who’d need salve. Just the mention of it made Micah’s neck itch, especially when sweat ran over the wounds.
He hated them, too.
He collected the loot—rags, picks, crystals—while Ryan kept the centipedes off them. They fought their way back to the others. Clearing these tunnels was not so much securing them as it was a change of occupancy. If it wasn’t Kobolds, it was something else crawling out its way out of the darkness. Even a Cavern Prowler had wandered in and surprised them a few minutes ago.
They just wouldn’t stop coming.
When they met up, Brent had two separate foot-step tracks across his face, one that ended abruptly at his eyebrow, the other that led toward his chest. Just, each footprint was an angry red bump with three or so stings welling up like bees’. They were wounds from the Whip Spiders’ rattle-fists.
He rubbed his cheek angrily with one hand and his chest through the armor with another. One of them must have gotten in.
The guy noticed them and grumbled, “New plan.”
They had no idea where they were going. The tunnels were too chaotic. It was like walking into an unknown mine, but worse because this was the Tower. The enemies were too numerous to make any proper headway. They almost even would have gotten lost on their way back if it hadn’t been for Jason. The monsters chased them all the way to the lake cave.
No landmarks, large rooms, or otherwise. They had no direction. Mediocre loot aside, Brent wanted to fix that. They couldn’t fight those Kobolds forever. They were running out of time.
So they stood around the shore, treated their wounds, and counted their belongings while they waited.
Micah was already much lower on ammunition than he had thought he would be. For every shot he’d made, he probably had earned a crystal, but he had to be more careful with how he used them.
At least, normal Kobold crystals were worth something as one of the more versatile kinds. Some type of metal essence. It was used in forges, dye-making, and glassblowers, he knew, among other things. That’s why some freshly-forged metals glowed blue. They used them in excess.
“Ahaha— Hrn.” The big guy cleared his throat and spoke in a deeper voice, ”Mm, that’s cold.”
“Stay still.”
“I am. What is that?”
“Healing salve. It has slimes in it,” Micah said as he rubbed, “helps relax wounds and muscles among other things.”
If they had been anywhere else, Micah would have preferred to use another salve, but his face and upper chest should have been fine.
“I can feel that. Why does it also feel hot, though?”
Micah shrugged. That was just how some salves worked. “Does it help?”
“Yeah.”
He could see as much himself—and feel it, on his own minor wound. A small dollop and it wasn’t itching anymore, for now.
There was another crack as Kyle threw a pickaxe head aside. They were made from the same dark stone as many other structures in the Tower, this time sturdy enough to mine walls with. Sometimes, it was brittle, sometimes firm. Micah wondered about the difference out loud.
Where did it even come from?
“I’m more interested in where they’re getting this wood,” Kyle grumbled as he added a shaft to the pile. Some didn’t have wood. Some were entirely made of bulky stone, thinning toward the edge—one Kobold had tried to stab him with that. But others did and it made him wonder.
“Maybe they just … have them?” Jason suggested. He kept on moving his arm where the Whip Spider had stung him, insisting that the salve smelled like it needed to be aired out. It just smelled icy-hot. “Like their clothes?”
Kyle looked at him like he was an idiot.
“Well, what’s your grand idea, then?” he challenged him.
“We all saw the second painting the school made, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Did nobody else notice the corner where the Fields wrapped around the edge of the Salamander’s Den?” He gestured a spiral with his hand: The green strip of land that climbed around the Tower in most new paintings.
Immediately, Jason had forgotten the insult and looked excited. “You think there’s an opening to the Fields nearby?”
Kyle grunted as he wrenched another pick head off. “Yeah. I’m hoping as much, anyway. I’d rather find an exit to the Fields than have to deal with these shitty tunnels any longer.”
Probably because of his gardening Class, too, right? Micah thought, but focused on something else. “Hit your head?” He had noticed Kyle scratch it and could barely restrain his smile.
“Shut up, pipsqueak.”
“Hey! Let me be smug about the one time my height is helping me.”
“Sure.”
He frowned and glanced over at Jason. How had he not hit his head half a dozen times? He was the tallest of them … though he was kind of agile. Maybe he was flexible enough for it?
“Uhm, Micah? Finish up?” Brent asked.
“Oh, sorry, sorry.”
He had insisted on applying the salve himself for the experience some books insisted it offered. Talking too much left Brent standing around with his armor off. But it was his job as the designated healer of the group.
The water shifted and Ryan heaved himself out to sit on the edge. Alex followed suit a moment later, soaked head to toe, and took the goggles off. He slapped a full jar down and took deep breaths.
“And?” Brent asked them.
“East,” Ryan said. “The tunnel leads east.”
They all glanced at the mines they had retreated from and grinned. Now, they had a direction.
It took them almost twenty minutes of cutting their way through with combined forces to begin to see a difference in structure. The tunnels became longer, had more branches where rubble was stored, and less random holes popping out of the ceiling. They seemed to alternate between halfway lit for the main connections to the mines and consistent shade for another.
They followed the shade. The missing fire veins in the walls looked too strategically done. Alex even agreed with him. With Ryan’s blessing, they turned a corner and froze, then quickly scrambled back.
Too late. The unmoving guards had heard them.
Four Kobolds. Two with crude bows, two with spears, sat at the end of the tunnel and shot to attention, knocking arrows. The first of those zipped by and clattered against the ground.
A single one of those in the throat or eye could kill. They stayed behind the corner for now. Maybe there would be an opportunity if they shot in quick succession to turn on them.
They called something and Alex cursed.
“What?” Ryan asked.
“Pretty sure they just called for reinforcements.”
“And?”
“And, they are going to try to ambush us here with archers on our backs. So we have three options: Spread out and ambush the reinforcements ourselves, try to force our way through, or retreat and find another way.”
Micah had caught a glimpse of beyond the guards: Light at the end of the tunnel. This was what they were looking for. No way they were backing off now.
The others agreed.
“Alright, then,” Alex said. “We’re going to do have to do this really freaking well because my [Lesser Ward] can’t hold them off for too long. Are you familiar with a shield wall?”
The concept? Yes. In practice?
Alex needed a moment to throw a ward up that covered half the tunnel. Already, they could hear the reinforcements trudging through the halls behind them as stones fell off stacks and Kobold’s snarled.
They put the most vulnerable people in the middle—Brent and Kyle—and covered them as best they could. Ryan took one flank with Jason behind him. His own ward would offer cover. Micah took the other side and used his small size to hide behind half a shield, Alex behind him.
They even added their backpacks to make sure this would go perfectly. An arrow there was better than an arrow to the face.
Two of those hit the ward and slowed as if caught in a net, lost their momentum, and clattered the ground. Phantom cracks spread where they had been. Micah saw those and felt the irrational urge to throw up.
“Now!” Alex called and they trudged forward in an awkward huddle three people wide, ward dismissed behind him.
They stumbled and cursed. Micah almost got nicked by an arrow. Alex told them to keep the shields together. But they caught their momentum halfway there and by the glances he saw of the Kobolds, they must have looked like an impenetrable wall huddled behind four measly circles.
When they were close enough, they shields opened up, bashing the spears aside, and Kyle and Brent fell on the guard with weapons in hand. Ryan’s burning spear stabbed one in the throat. Another got a hand cut off and the others were overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
They stepped into the light.
They had known the Kobolds had been guarding something. Treasure, hopefully? Maybe the guardian. They hadn’t been expecting the large cavern twisting into the ground like a staggered funnel.
Dozens of Kobolds, tan or red, walked the paths with tools—pickaxes, chisels, shovels. Tunnels opened up here and there. Some left. Others came in with arms full of stone. They headed down to an exit larger than the rest at the very bottom. South. Micah almost took a step toward it and glanced up.
They weren’t even at the top. It went up for at least three more circles. Teacup Salamanders stuck to the walls and centipedes roamed in the shadows. Most of the Firescale Kobolds had weapons, pets, better clothes, or large red crystals at their sides or on staves.
By the way they patrolled, they looked like overseers. Some kind of caste system among monsters?
Ryan tugged on his arm and he realized the reinforcements were still coming up behind them.
Could they fight forty or more Kobolds in an open space like that? Maybe. Best not to try. It would look bad in an interview.
“Retreat,” Ryan said.
They got the corner just in time to avoid four Kobolds setting up with slings, rocks, and crude spears. They took one of either on their way back as samples and broke the others to pieces.
Micah had wanted a challenge. Now they had one. And he was excited to try out their solution. The place all the Kobolds brought their goods to led south. They fought their way back to the starting point for the second time that day and went swimming.