We finished out lunch and the party menu perusal and went back out for a few more things on the quest list. Before leaving, I also made a point to truncate the spell text that always displayed during a fight log. I selected “basic info only,” and suddenly my half a page paragraph explaining my hammer reduced by considerable size. There was another message informing me I could check the glossary for further details or return to this screen to go back to standard.

  The sub quest had us looking for five more ingredients. The horn was safely tucked away in my room along with the whisky. But I… now we… needed more things to craft the key of stabilization and repair the seven wards scattered around Trelain’s boundaries. Once that was done, we assumed we would be free to pursue other things in a safer and more controlled set up.

  Besides, we all needed to round out our power suites, and Tre had told me the best way to get skill books was to finish quests— especially with my looting power. Once I had a complete power suite, I’d advance to Acolyte and be on my way to enhancing my Mirror Door spell. Tre wasn’t sure if doing so would allow me to get home to let my wife and friends know what was going on. But he wasn’t unsure either. But first… the sub quest.

  Current status:

  Sub Quest! Acquire materials to fix the wards. 2/7 collected

  Noctua horn: 1/1

  Flask of fire whisky: 1/1

  Ingot of silver: 0/1

  Ingot of gold: 0/1

  Ball bearings of 5160 steel: 0/30

  Canary blood: 0/8

  Elmstier wood extract: 0/20

  “Any idea where we’re going to find a… what is this… canary?” Benji asked, turning to the group. “I’ve never even heard of one.”

  “It’s a bird,” I said, while packing a few perishables away in case we were gone for the night. “A little, yellow bird. And if I’m being honest, I don’t want to bleed one. That’s a bit rude, don’t you think?”

  “Maybe it’s code for something?” Maleena said hopefully.

  “Maybe,” Dane agreed.

  We hiked toward the little spot on the map that was circled and labeled “Canary Nest,” all while pondering the meaning of this particular item in the weird magical shopping list. There wasn’t a volume required, just zero of eight. So, it really could have been anything. The list, thus far included colorfully named leaves from a plant, some sort of throwing knives (that was Dane), the first eight pages of a book called Canary Blood, and more. It wasn’t until ten minutes or so had passed when Benji used something we had all seemingly forgotten to employ… his brain.

  “Can’t we just… look it up in the glossary? That’s part of the Party Perks, right?”

  Canary Blood: the blood of a little yellow bird. What were you expecting?

  “Well, that’s unfortunate,” Dane deadpanned.

  -

  Turns out the Canary Nest the mini map led us to was in a cave. It wasn’t a very deep one, thankfully. It was more like those kinds of caves with one way in and a wide open space with a pile of bones some bear had been collecting. Only this cave didn’t have a bear. It didn’t have much of anything, except a weird little red bush with the promised nest resting on one of the limbs. Inside the nest was a dead canary.

  Now, everything I knew about the birds came from dumb anecdotes about miners testing air quality. But that was with a canary in a little cage, not on its own nest. Regardless, its lifeless form gave me pause. It didn’t look like it’d been dead for long. So, I glanced at the mini map and then shot an eyebrow up at Benji. He nodded, so I touched it and mentally activated my loot power. It went up in the normal black ichor smoke and I stepped back.

  Canary blood: 1/8.

  It showed up as a little vial in my inventory which had me confused about a lot of things, including where the hell I was keeping little empty glass vials? I shrugged it off and promised to discuss the inventory system with someone smarter than me, later.

  “Well, that worked… but where are the rest of them?” I asked the group.

  “There have gotta be more around here, somewhere. Everyone, fan out,” Maleena said, and then turned to the big man in the rear, “And Dane?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Light a torch, why don’t you?”

  “Wait no, don’t!”

  Just as the torch went up in flames, there was a massive BOOM as a giant boulder rolled into place… blocking our only way out of the cave. A second later, and our deficient canary problem was over but a much bigger issue had made itself known.

  THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK THWACK

  Dead birds rained from the ceiling, hitting the cave floor in sickening crunches. One after another, the canary storm didn’t let up and we were getting pelted. Fortunately, the birds barely weighed a thing and weren’t damaging in any way. Physically, at least. Mentally, I had no idea what to think. That is until the ground shook and something gigantic came up from the middle of the floor on a raising platform.

  “What the actual—” Dane roared.

  “DUCK!” Benji finished.

  “No, I think that’s a….” Maleena started.

  "A canary?” I asked, perplexed but also fascinated.

  A gigantic, twelve-foot-tall canary with a blood red beak stood in the middle of the cave floor. It took one look at us and let out a mighty squawk. It might have been funny, until it turned to the side in one quick movement and whipped what looked like a scorpion tail in our direction.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  It happened too fast to get out of the way, its vicious tail moving at impressive speed considering its girth. It was on direct collision course for the party when Benji stepped up and blocked it.

  Ice Shell: [Active] [Elemental/Defense Spell] [Domain: Frost] Create a protective frost barrier over yourself, invulnerable to frost damage, semi-resistant to normal attacks (Mana cost: moderate).

  Benji’s shell took the tail in center mass, but it held… long enough to see that the thing was covered in barbs that were dripping some sort of red viscose fluid. Dane didn’t waste any time, and came down hard with his mace.

  Wrathful Strike: [Active] [Physical] [Domain: Wrath]Strike out with extreme force, greatly improving physical strikes (Mana cost: low).

  The first hit connected but wasn’t enough. The barbed tail pushed back against Benji’s personal shield, the red head using his body as a barricade as Dane lay into it. Maleena put a hand on Dane midway through his second swing.

  Bolster: [Active] [Defense/Healing Spell] [Domain: Enhancement] Improve or fortify a physical aspect of target ally. (ex: bolstered low health will be brought back to stability) (mana cost: varies).

  His follow up swing broke the tail clean in half with blunt force, sending the red oozing liquid everywhere in a spray. The large barbed end dropped to the ground with a TWHUNK as the gigantic canary let out a shrill scream… a sonic blast that sent us all tumbling back against the wall of the cave. I hit first, stars in my eyes greeting me almost like an old friend. I had been really racking up the head trauma the last few days.

  Benji, whose shield had broken on impact, was least affected by the blast and threw a lightning bolt at the bird’s face.

  Lightning Bolt: [Active] [Elemental/Destruction Spell] [Domain: Shock] Hurl a bolt of lightning at a target. Shock damage. Increased damage to targets that are wet or wearing armor (Mana cost: Low).

  It hit wide, catching it just under the right wing. Benji hadn’t managed to score a critical hit. But the electricity still crackled throughout the bird and it let out a shriek of pain. I was up a second later, conjuring my sledgehammer and casting furnace at the same time.

  Furnace: [Active] [Elemental Spell] [Domain: Metallurgy] Engulf your body in flames as hot as your forge (Mana cost: moderate).

  Summon Sledgehammer: [Active] [Conjuration] [Domain: Metallurgy] Conjure a 3 lbs high-carbon steel hammer that swings like a war hammer. (Mana cost: low).

  I had intended to only effect the sledgehammer with furnace, giving myself a flaming hammer. But, apparently I didn’t have that level of control yet. I threw the hammer at the big bird, aiming for center mass. It connected and its feathers erupted with a poof and it started burning. Not wasting any time, I rushed forward… meaning to transform into my Spirit Avatar. But, the bird had other, quicker plans. It lashed out with a beak, crunching into the cave floor and sending chunks of rock projectiles in all directions. I took one to the jaw and immediately felt blood pouring from my face. Head wounds always bled worse than they looked but I didn’t feel tip top.

  Maleena had faired better than I had. At the same time the beak hit the ground, she cast wind sheer, sending the rocks back in the direction of the bird.

  Windsheer: [Active] [Elemental Spell] [Domain: Frost] Emit a freezing gust of wind, Knock back and cold damage (Mana cost: low).

  The earthen shrapnel slammed into the gigantic canary, backed by Maleena’s frozen wind blast. What was once on fire, spreading from its chest, went out.

  “Sorry!” Maleena yelled in my direction.

  My face was bleeding too much to respond, so I just gave her a gurgling nod and then cast furnace again. It had gone out once I lost concentration. My blood burned up immediately as my whole body came alite once more. I flung another burning hammer at the bird.

  Dane, who hadn’t taken any hits, grabbed the red oozing stump of the scorpion tail and tugged hard. The Canary toppled over for a moment, and Benji shot a few more lightning bolts into its body. With seemingly no spells to counter, and its beak being used to stabilize, all it could do was thrash about in Dane’s grip. But he was strong right now, especially with bolster adding to the cause.

  I summoned and threw a few more burning hammers at the bird as Benji kept peppering it with lightning bolts. The big bird pecked at the ground, kicking up more dirt and rock in the air. It was getting hard to breath in the cave, but it seemed like our fight was almost done. Then Dane stepped on one of the several dozen dead canaries on the ground and slipped. Bloody bird bones flew everywhere as he fell. The giant canary, scorpion hybrid (which after finally taking a second to look at my battle log I found was called a T’rrch’ni Karich or T’Karich for short) was getting up for another attack. It was bloody, burning, and limping from repeated electrocution. But it charged anyway. Straight at Benji.

  But, Dane was there in an instant. His giant mace came down on the T’Karich’s head and red roiling goo spewed out and all over the cave floor. That ended it immediately.

  “Weird looking bird…” Dane said, casually… bringing his mace up to rest on his shoulder.

  “Dane you’re getting… goo… all over your…” I tried.

  He looked down and frowned.

  “Oh god and it’s all over me too,” Benji complained.

  “Well did you want it dead or did you want it dead?” Dane countered.

  “Fine…” he said, sarcastically and then gave a wink.

  After drinking a health potion from my bandolier to heal the gash in my jaw, I spent the next few minutes walking around touching all the little bird bodies I could find. It was gruesome, disgusting, and relatively demoralizing. I had long played RPGs filled with endless mob swarms, fights like that being highly lucrative in the loot department. This was unlike anything I had ever imagined. But we got more than enough canary blood.

  Canary Blood: 112/8

  The T’Karich yielded some interesting drops. Because I had a party now, every member received their own loot for killing the massive thing. Benji got a vial of something red and roiling that he seemed to find fascinating. As none of us were alchemically inclined, my identify inherent skill just classified it as a rare potion. We’d take it back to Trelain’s and see if he knew what to do with it. Dane received something in his dimensional party inventory that I could identify for him: a bright yellow buckler.

  The Informant: [Defensive] [Buckler] [Uncommon] Get advanced warning of any impending danger via psychic link.

  Maleena’s drop was equally useful. She got a pair of studded gloves, barbed like the T’Karich’s tail but yellow like the body of the monster.

  Harvestman’s Grips: [Offensive] [Gloves] [Uncommon] Attacks made via touch add venom (stacking). Can remove venom from friendly or allied creatures.

  My drop was less utilitarian than my moccasins, but also set me up to be more effective in close quarters (which was something I was severely lacking with my current set up.

  Aculeus: [Offensive] [Dagger] [Uncommon] An attack made with this dagger applies one instance of necrotic venom. Stacking.

  With more than enough canary blood to last a lifetime, and some very useful drops, we headed back to the Treehouse to rest and recuperate. Benji really wanted to figure out what his vial contained, and waited anxiously for Trelain’s return. I wasn’t even sure if he could help. Though I had known him for a little less than a week, and was very aware of his status as an Apostle, I had no idea what his Disciplines were. I resolved to ask him more questions next time I saw the crazy old coot.

  Besides the canary blood, we had picked up a half a dozen mana potions and four uncommon healing potions. We split those the best we could. There were also a variety of crafting items I wasn’t sure how to use yet— things like bird bones, feathers, and the like. The cave experience had left us all a bit shaken and quite a bit more filthy. I had a few more hygiene drinks, and passed those around as we exited the underground.

  Things weren’t exactly chipper, heading back, but they weren’t awful either. Working together, for real, as a team had our minds whirring with possibilities of synergies and gaps that we wanted to fill with our own power suite loadouts. Though we hadn’t gotten any skill books as drops, the excitement that came with a successful fight and the potential future of another lucrative reward around the corner was palpable. I hadn’t ever felt anything quite like it, to be honest.

  Back at the treehouse, we found Trelain waiting for us with an expression on his face I couldn’t quite place. He had four mugs of ale (not cider for once) set out for us around his little table. When the last of us hoisted up the rope ladder, he spoke.

  “So… how’d you like my bird?”

  “Trelain, what the fu—"