About two miles outside of Valenka’s Reach they found the cluster of trees where the old well was supposedly located. A small path had been worn in the dirt long ago and wound its way back toward the copse. As they split off from the main road, Eldren tried to mentally prepare himself. He still didn’t know what to expect from a spell shrine and it seemed Ardos’ knowledge about the Iron Square’s challenges was long outdated.

The small forest was tranquil as they passed under the boughs. A few birds chirped and a few golden rays of sunshine finally broke through what had been constant cloud cover since Eldren’s arrival in Bakavia.

“Argh, ouch, son of a king’s spawn sack” growled Baltran. A string of other curses flew from his mouth as he abruptly halted and bent to grab at his boot. “Stubbed me toe on something bloody hard sticking out of the ground.

Ink walked back and leaned over to inspect the ground, wiping away dead leaves, dirt, and moss.

“It’s some kind of grave marker,” she said. “You caught your toe on an exposed edge. It’s settled unevenly. Must be old.”

Eldren furrowed his brow and looked around, spotting a few more patches of concrete and stone, their etched lettering worn away by time and weather and mostly hidden by foliage and leaves. Suddenly, the quiet and peacefulness made sense; it was the same unnatural, almost unnerving calm that he felt whenever he visited his parents at the cemetery back home.

“Nobody said the well was in a bloody graveyard,” Beltran said.

They continued wandering further back into the trees, stepping over more fallen headstones and grave markers. Some of the graves were fresher than others while others had long ago become illegible as rain and wind had chipped away at the inscriptions.

"Why is there a graveyard in the middle of nowhere out this far from the village?" Eldren asked.

"Ink, may I see your map again?" Ardos said. She nodded and unrolled the map from her pack and set it on the ground. The tortoise slowly plodded over top of it, examining it as he walked. "Ah, yes. I wondered how close we were. This part of Bakavia has been torn asunder by war for centures. Your friend Slad--"

"He's not my friend," Ink said. "Hes an acquaintance, at best."

"Well, regardless, he mentioned that fighting is going on even today. Of course, modern fighting is between the church and the Coven. But this cemetery is much older. This is nearby where the Iron Square scored one of its biggest victories over the rebel militias during the final uprising against its rule. This is cemetery for soldiers."

They looked around, seeing the hallowed and quiet grave markers differently. When Eldren looked closely, he realized there must be hundreds of bodies buried beneath this small patch of land.

“There’s the well,” Ink said suddenly, gesturing toward a structure that looked more like an ornate fountain than the water well Eldren had expected. It was square and had high sides with a marble column at each corner. As they approached it, Eldren could see that there was no water; it was indeed a well, and peering down inside, he could see only inky blackness. No rope or bucket hung from the smooth sides.

“Ardos, you’re sure the spell challenge is at the bottom?” Eldren asked.

“Yes,” the tortoise said. "There will be some sort of puzzle and also, potentially, some sort of defense mechanism. You'll need to go alone. The defenses will trigger if any outsiders except for the holder of a crystal ball attempts to help complete the shrine."

They stared down the hole in the ground.

“Ink, do you have any more rope?” Eldren asked.

“Naw, used my last bit tying up those guards in Yarko Village,” she said. “Should have asked Slad for some.”

An idea struck him after a few moments of thinking. It would be dangerous, but he could try to cast Double Jump and time the second jump before he landed at the bottom of the well. It would be a haphazard way to try and break reduce his momentum, but might work if he could figure out when to do the second jump. His nerves began to tingle and he marveled at the fact that he was even considering it. Cam would have never, but here, he was Eldren and Eldren took calculated risks.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

What if the calculations are all wrong, though? He brushed the thought away. There wasn’t another obvious way down. Plus, what was the point of knowing magic if it didn’t get you out of a bind? Or break your legs?

Eldren walked away from the well and over toward one of the tombstones. He found a piece that had disintegrated away into pebbles and stones and grabbed a small rock. He returned and held the stone stationary at the lip of the well wall before dropping it.

He waited.

Splunk.

“Ink, you said you use the metric system. Kilometers?”

“Yeah, why?” she answered, flashing him a quizzical expression as they peered into the darkness after the stone.

Eldren allowed Cam’s thoughts to come back into his mind and quickly ran a few numbers, putting his physics teaching to the test. It would all depend on whether gravity worked the same in Aldimea as it did back home.

“9.8 meters per second, per second,” he muttered, grabbing a nearby stick and scratching at the dirt. About 4 seconds. No initial velocity. Assume sound travels the same, 343 meters per second.” Baltran and Ink watched him curiously.

“The lad has gone completely mad,” Baltran said.

“About fifty meters, give or take, I think,” Eldren said. Calculated risk. It was a big drop. Survivable, though, if his math was off by just a few meters, depending on what was at the bottom. “I’m going to jump down,” he proclaimed.

“Have your brains gone rotten, boy?” Baltran asked. “You’re going to jump down the bloody big hole in the ground?”

“Yep,” Eldren said, more confidently than he felt. “We don’t have any rope and we have to get the spell word.”

“Eldren,” Ardos said. “Maybe you should reconsider. We could go back to town and get some rope and then come back. I used rope when I was a young apprentice.”

“Haven’t got the coin for that,” Ink said sadly. “Slad won’t give us much of a deal. Probably the opposite of a deal. He’ll want to twist the screws so we bring in his bounty. Plus, every time we traipse through a village—even a small one— we increase the chances that somebody will tip off the gray cloaks. We aren’t exactly ordinary looking.” She glanced at Baltran.

Eldren nodded.

“Well that settles it,” he said. He pulled the spellbook and crystal ball from his backpack. Gesturing to the orb, he summoned his stat screen.

Eldren Pendergast. Experience: 10 Level: 2

Spells known: 1

Spell types: 1

HP: 10/10

Mana pool: 10 MP

The MP that he had used to cast Double Jump on the rooftops of Yarko Village had replenished when he leveled up. Spending mana just to reach the spell word would leave him a bit depleted for whatever challenge he was going to face but he didn’t see any other choice.

“Ardos, how much mana does each spell take?” he asked.

“It depends. It isn’t the same for every wizard,” the tortoise said. “The more powerful you are, the more efficiently you can use your spells, meaning you should find low-level spells less draining.”

“Let’s assume I’m not powerful and not efficient.”

“I’d estimate four or five MP,” the wizard said.

Super. Half of my total, he thought.

“Okay, I’m going to try and time this,” he said. “Ink, Baltran.” He turned to his companions. “If you hear me scream don’t worry about me. Leave here and get to safety.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice,” muttered the dwarf. “But err— I’m sure you’ll be fine,” he said. His tone was not reassuring.

Eldren walked away from the well, counting his paces, and then held up his right hand, the spell book in his left.

“Double Jump,” he shouted.

Double Jump - Level 1 Spell

This spell allows the medium-sized creatures or smaller to jump unnaturally high. An initial jump of ten meters straight up is followed by a second jump of 5 meters when the caster begins to descend.

He felt a little silly and still wasn’t sure how casting spells worked, exactly. As he expected, nothing visibly changed but he knew that his next step would send him careening into the air ten meters high. He could feel a small tingling in his stomach, indicating that some of his mana points had been drained to cast the spell.

He took a step and pushed off forward, toward the well with his foot, shooting in the air at an angle that peaked directly overhead of the well. He had done these calculations, too.

He began to fall. So far, so good. He remained perfectly still, careful not to reflexively kick or flail.

His stomach climbed into his throat as air rushed up past him and he cleared the entrance to the well. He began to count as darkness swallowed him, careful not to rush. He couldn’t see anything now and everything depended on his timing this correctly.

One, two. Now! He pushed his other foot out and kicked at the air. His momentum abruptly stopped and changed direction as he flew five meters back up the well. He peaked and then fell again, rolling in the air so he’d land on his back and hoping against hope that he had timed the spell’s second jump correctly.

He splashed down hard into shallow water and mud at the bottom of the well, sending a vibration and pain through his body. But it was a dull pain, not the searing hot pain of broken bones. He had done it.

He stayed still for a moment, soaked, muddy, and aching but thrilled. He had used magic to get down the well. His calculations were correct.

Maybe Cam’s skills can be useful in this world too.

Eldren was snapped from his victorious respite by a scream. Ink’s scream. Two pistol shots. Another shout and the clang of metal on metal followed by a third pistol shot. Adrenaline coursed through his body as he stared up toward the small opening of light far above him that was the well’s opening. Something was attacking the others up above.