THE WHITE ORC.

Snap!

The White Orc shut his book impatiently and dropped it back into the extensive library shelves of his inventory.

Karl had assembled a large version of one of his protective mucous bubbles around them all to ward off the noxious air, and they had settled themselves in to wait for Gob and Gurd.

The bubble was wide enough and high enough for them to set up a temporary camp complete with chairs and the Orc's firepit and cauldron.

They'd been waiting most of the day now. It was getting well into the afternoon and the White Orc was getting concerned.

He had researched his library as they waited, exploring ideas as he had them about different known materials that could be like the ones Kylie had described to him, in her usual non-detailed fashion.

He asked her a question from time to time. She did the best she could, but as with anything technical, she only had a very vague understanding of how things worked. She'd spent most of the day trying to get her magic to work through the bubble that Karl had created for her, so that she could potentially shoot an electrical bolt from inside the protection of the bubble without popping it. She'd broken quite a few, but Karl didn't seem to mind, he was fascinated by the exercise, and it was far better to be at least partially effective through the bubble than reacting like she did to the noxious air.

He had researched that too; her reaction had been very strange, and he wanted to know whether what happened to her when she was exposed would give any clues to the nature of the power at the centre of the structure below them.

She called it radiation, but he couldn't find any reference to that term in any of his library within materials or alchemy creating. From her description it sounded like a mutagen, and he had done plenty of work with Crude Magic mutagenic spells and mutagenic concoctions, but he'd never heard of something that could affect an area of this size to this degree. Anything that could had to be immensely powerful.

It was calling to him, that power. It had been calling to him ever since they had entered the swamp. He could feel something, right at the edge of his consciousness.

He hadn't progressed in his magic for a long time now. Since the adventuring party consisting of Gervais, Leőn, Dan and himself had split up, he had locked himself away in solitude, and focused on his research and his alchemy. He had progressed far with it, but his magical power had been left in stasis; strong, but no stronger now than it had been all those years ago.

That had been his personal motivation for coming on this adventure with Gob. He knew he had to progress. He knew he was on the cusp of a breakthrough.

However high level breakthroughs were dangerous. It's why many Mages never went much further than level 5. Progression at the high levels could mean breakthrough, or the power could break you. You had to have all your stats well balanced and working together. You had to be deeply connected to your affinities, and you had to do something outrageously irresponsible, and trust in your stats to get you through it while at the same time using all your learning to create an epiphany...a combining of multiple stats, skills or blessings into a new, far more powerful one. Often exponentially more powerful. If he was honest, it was this potential that held him back. He wasn't afraid of being irresponsible or dangerous, anything but! His early life had been filled with with savagery and life-threatening risks. He was concerned about what the power would do to him. What changes it would work in his Mind and his Spirit. It wasn't unusual for Mages to gain their level five epiphany and then later collapse under the influence of what they now wielded. He had wondered whether that's what had happened to Gervais. So for years now he had taken himself out of battle, out of action and he had thrown himself into his books and his research and his studies to delay the inevitable: that at his core he wasn't a Wright. He was a Warrior Mage. And he could sense there was something powerful enough inside the sunken structure calling to him. To either push him forwards, or consume him.

So now, he was getting impatient.

At one point part way through the day they had heard a faint 'Shriek' and the Orc had listened intently for anything more but nothing more had happened.

"How long would it have taken to walk all the way through the passages" he asked Karl.

"Well if they followed only the central passage, walked at a decent pace and didn't get distracted along the way, they would be there by now."

Leőn sniggered.

"Do you think there would be creatures inside the structure?" asked Kylie, ignoring the Elf.

"There's really no part of this bog that doesn't have creatures," answered Karl, "so yes, probably. The only type of creature I can recall being inside the structure is the Groshnickes we mentioned… they're like a large aggressive insect but with black leathery skin. They're very quick, but also very predictable and not very tough--"

All of their attentions were suddenly on alert as they heard a

KER-CHUNK. KER-CHUNK. KER-CHUNK.

They all turned to look for the source of the strange sound, and saw a massive area of the bog start to bubble and heave as if being pushed up from below.

In the centre of the heaving mass a circular stone building made of large closely fitted but irregular shaped blocks pushed up out if the bog, gradually and mechanically, level by level. With each Ker-chunk,

"It's the reactor funnel!" said Kylie. She was right, the further it pushed up the more like the stone carvings it looked. Bog mud and putrid water sloughed off it as it clunked upwards

KER-CHUNK. KER-CHUNK. KER-CHUNK.

It ground to a halt. The final level was a ring, the top of the circle open to the sky. The loud grating of stone on stone and the mechanical ker-chunking now gave way to a collection of other strange sounds

Huuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

BREACH! BREACH!

tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka-tikka!

RRRRRRRROOOOOOOAAAAAAARRRR!

SHHHHHHRRRRRRRRIIIIIIEEEEEKKK!

"Do you think they've got it covered?" said Leőn sarcastically, his daggers already in his hands.

Kylie rubbed her hands together with a Crackle.

The White Orc took out his runehammer, "Karl, how do we get over to the structure?"

"Oh my..." Karl answered.

The swamp thing was there.

The funnel was a fair distance from where they had been waiting, and even so it towered above them, well above the treeline, at least as high as a multi story building.

Sloshing across the swamp, sending great waves of muddy water ahead of them his now humongous legs was the swamp thing, who had grown to an extraordinary size, but the look of it so he could peer over the top of the funnel, down into the structure.

He seemed to be talking to someone inside.

After a short while the massive creature turned and sloshed away from the funnel... towards them!

"Be ready everyone," said the White Orc, swinging his left arm and casting his protective vortexshield.

"How ready can you be for a gargantuan swamp creature?" asked Leőn.

"We've faced much worse than him together Elf... anyway you should be able to talk him out of doing anything to reckless..." said the Orc.

However, as the giant swamp creature approached them his size reduced accordingly, until, as he reached them, he was once again the size of a tree. They all relaxed, just a little.

"Oh you've all got your weapons out ready, of course you do. You were expecting all this weren't you?" the swamp thing waved at the funnel, "You sent them in there to make it all happen. I mean I should have known from the start. Typical. You guard the place for years and then someone comes along, talks you into letting them have a quick look around, and then pop! up comes the structure, and you know that your whole career is just out the window--"

"What IS that structure, Mr Thing?" asked Kylie politely interrupting.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"Oh well you're going to have to come and see for yourselves. The Core told me to come and get you." he answered.

"The CORE?" asked the Orc.

"Well actually, that little troll guy told me he needed his friends. And the Core told me to do it already. So, yes. The temple dungeon core. It told me. To come and get you already."

They were all looking at him strangely. He sighed and did something that would have been rolling his eyes, if he had had any eyes to roll, and put his hand down on the bog in front of them. It grew and expanded outwards, forming a wide flat surface like a platform over the bog water.

"So, come on then... I've been instructed to take you over there! Hop on already!"

The White Orc put his hammer away and stepped onto the swamp things platform first. The others followed him tentatively.

"Come on, come on, it's strong enough for everyone." he chided, impatiently.

Karl pulled in his protective bubble and it shrank to encircle the platform.

The swamp thing lifted the platform easily, and with a sound like the snapping of tree branches and the groaning of ropes under strain, and the squelching of mud, his entire form started to swell before their eyes, as at the same time they were elevated higher and higher as the creature grew from tree size to multi storey building size right beneath them. It was an incredible thing to witness. The swamp thing may have been a strange character, but there was no denying he was an extremely special individual.

He sloshed back across the swamp towards the funnel opening. As soon as they came close they could hear Gob's bellowing roar, some shrieks and yelling coming from inside.

As soon as they approached the wide circular opening, Karl dispelled the protective bubble so they could get a feel for what was inside the funnel.

They all cringed. There was a physical repulsion pushing out to them from inside the structure. The orc forced himself forwards to the edge of the platform and looked down. He could hear the sounds of fighting and yelling from Gob and Gurd, and another monotone voice, but the… radiation? The word suited what he felt emanating from inside. It was powerful. It was physically attacking him, he knew, he could feel, but it wasn't like any sort of attack he had felt before. It was like it was passing through him, and as it did, it mixed parts of his very fibre around, even taking some of it away. It was dangerous… and fascinating.

He cut his musings short, whatever was going on down there, Gob needed his help.

"Karl," he asked, "Can you make a bubble the right size for you, Leőn and Paula individually? Like Kylie's?"

"Well yes... they might be a bit awkward though..." he said thoughtfully, before his face suddenly lit up, "WAIT! Do you have some rope, and a knife, Orc?"

The Orc nodded and pulled a length of rough rope and a knife out of his inventory, passing them to Karl curiously. Karl cast a bubble around himself, then cut a length of rope quickly, flung it wide around his waist outside the bubble, and tied it off, cinching the bubble at his middle. Now it looked like he was in a protective hourglass.

The White Orc could see what he was trying to do.

"Pass me the rope," he said to Karl. He cut a few lengths, looping one loosely around Karl's neck, two around his shoulders and one between his legs, Karl raising his eyebrows with surprise. When he was finished however, Karl was wearing something that looked like an inflatable suit.

"You look ridiculous." said Leőn.

"Well I can move!" said Karl with self admiration, trying out some different poses, "I can't believe I never thought of this before!'

"You just invented the hazmat suit!" said Kylie.

"You'd better use one too Leőn," said the Orc, "I don't think they'll stand up very well against creature attacks, so you three stay here for now, I'll go and see what's hairiness down there and find out where that energy is coming from."

"You're going to go down there, unprotected?" Leőn asked.

"I think whatever down there will push me past level five," said the Orc, "I've been feeling it ever since we entered the swamp."

Leőn raised his eyebrows in surprise, "An epiphany!? Now?! And you want me to wait up here in a bubble?!"

The Orc jumped into the darkness.

It was a long way down, but that didn't concern him. He had excellent toughness, and his vortexshield also protected from fall damage to a degree, if he positioned it below him.

But the radiation was powerful enough to hurt him. As he dropped towards it, the feeling was palpable. He must be descending right into it.

Huuummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

He clattered down onto the top of a dome of metal, stumbled and fell sprawling on the floor. The pain that radiated from the dome was excruciating. He was drawn to it though, even though it was like it was tearing him apart.

He heard the sound of Gob roaring, and a sudden ear piercing shriek coming from an open stone doorway ahead of him. From the sound of it, they were battling something significant.

Above him in rings around the central area he had fallen into, there were four higher levels reached by flights of stone steps. He could see similar, though closed, doorways on each level. Had Gob and Gurd been battling through a dungeon this whole time?

He heard Gob's voice yelling, though it came to him only faintly from a long way away,

"pres da buton gurd! i hold it off!..."

WARNING! WARNING! CONTAINMENT RELEASED. DOME OPENING. MELTDOWN IMMINENT IN 00:02:31.

The White Orc looked around. A strange monotone voice had just ring out around the space. He didn't have long to consider it however, as the

HuuuummmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMM

suddenly intensified and the radiation that had already been battering his body intensified. He crouched behind his vortexshield as he saw the dome rotating open like a curved iris, revealing the incredibly powerful material that was the source of the mutated swamp.

AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!

With a mighty growl the White Orc, leaning heavily into his shield, took a step forward.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHH

and another, gritting his teeth and pushing, and another, until he reached the now exposed containment dome. Inside the central circle was what looked like small black rods of some immensely heavy metal.

WARNING! MELTDOWN IMMINENT. 00:00:19

"ORC?" he heard a distant panicked yell from above. Leőn.

Grinding his teeth against the pain, the White Orc steeled his substantial muscles and picked up a rod with his bare hand. The same hand that was carrying his vortexshield. It was extremely heavy. He felt like his skin was melting as he gripped it but he clung to the rod anyway, his instinct for magic pushing past his physical warning signs. His spiralling black vortex spun continued to spin around his arm, it began to warp strangely around his hand where he clenched the metal bar. Now, instead of the eye of the vortex a pitch black curved disc formed, the vortex seeming to pull the dense material into itself, and remoulding it as part of itself. The bar disintegrated in his grip. He reached for another one, bellowing as he picked it up.

WARNING! MELTDOWN IMMINENT. 00:00:12

The second bar also began to be absorbed into the vortex, giving a wider circumference to the hard, curved disc forming within and around his forearm.

"AGAIN!" he shouted, desperately, in intense pain. He looked at his hand, the skin was peeling off his palm and fingers, and the dull white bone and green orc blood ran out of it. He looked away and grabbed another rod.

WARNING! MELTDOWN IMMINENT. 00:00:08

Then another. And another. Everytime the vortex drawing in the dark material and forming a steadily widening curved metal disc. He was on the edge of losing consciousness, but he knew when the last one disappeared because the oppression was gone from the space around him.

+95toughness +105constitution emerged:skill:wieldisotope crudeblessing:vortexshield>crudeblessing:radiationdome crudeblessing:acidbath>crudeblessing:castmutagen LEVELUP:LevelFIVE epiphany:radiationdome+castmutagen+whirlhammer>crudeblessing:ancientdarkradiance

He slumped to the floor.

"ORC!" yelled Gob, in concern, throwing himself through the sublevel five doorway just behind Gurd as it rasped closed, nearly crushing his tail, definitely crushing at least one large Groshnicke that had obviously been chasing him.

MELTDOWN... ISOTOPE CONTAINED.

SUBLEVEL FIVE CLOSED.

"ORC!" yelled Leőn and Kylie together, concerned, as they descended on a platform courtesy of Mr Thing.

By now the White Orc was laid face down on the ground, his vortex dispelled, his body a wreck.

Leőn jumped down immediately, still contained in his bubble suit, to be at the orcs side. He took out a long replenishment vial with a spiked end out of his inventory and jabbed it hard into the orcs leg.

"Come on you old savage, you've survived worse than this before" he said gently.

"Actually…" the White Orc groaned, "I don't… think… I have… I think… that was… the worst."

"Can't be that bad if you're still here to complain about it." Leőn responded with relief. He looked up at Gob, and his eyes widened mischievously, "Well look at you all grown up!"

"Gob!" exclaimed Kylie, who had been too focused on the White Orc to notice until now, "You got bigger!! Size(4)?!"

"he shoor did!" said Gurd proudly with a wide goofy smile, putting her arm around him, "he big trol now!"

Gob blushed.

Kylie's eyes widened.

Leőn chuckled.

Karl looked over the rim, breaking up the awkward moment, "Is it safe to come down?" he called.

He was lowered down, again courtesy of the thing.

(oh sure, no really I'm pleased to be of service as your personal elevator attendant... years of guarding the swamp, and here I am, a glorified bell-boy..)

The radiation had hurt the Orc badly enough that he looked disfigured. As soon as Karl saw the state of the Orc he immediately cast a bubble over him to ensure he could recuperate in the best environment possible

"Thank… you." mumbled the Orc, "That feels… much… better…" He drifted into an exhausted sleep.

They stayed with the White Orc while he recuperated.

"What is this place," asked Karl looking around in wonder,

"And what happened here?"