Mato

  Mato eagerly watched the Skeletal Wyvern cirg zily above the stone ruins drawing slowly closer, a barely visible swirl of greenish mist trailing from its wings. Acc to Ali, it was a maion of its poison mana – a toxic aura – and the reason he kept being poisoned just by being close to the monsters.

  His anticipation was entirely due to his desire to test out his new Swipe: Battle Master advance, and ’s ready acceptance of his proposal of a field test. They stood amidst the strewn rubble of what had once been a rge building, now pletely destroyed, in an unoment of quiet – the lull between the bouts of mad chaos aru when they charged through the undead-ied buildings.

  “Ready?” asked.

  “Yup!” he said.

  stepped up o him, nog a long arrow to his bow. In a single smooth a, he drew and fired, sending a trailing of light flying into the dark sky. Despite seeing it so many times, Mato was yet again impressed with his friend’s accuracy. The arrow flew true to the mark, and the magical entahe powerful wyvern snarling its bone wings, instantly drawing taut and dragging it toward the ground.

  “Nice shot,” Mato observed.

  The wyvern shrieked and struggled against the magical bonds, cirg lower and lower as the grappling of magic reeled it in. Mato shifted his form and as soon as his foe touched down, he charged – his magic accelerating his mass into the wyvern with a crash. While it was bigger than he was, he definitely had it beaten in sheer weight. I don’t have to fly, he thought as his impaocked the wyvern back several feet. It immediately reared up, sshing him with its talons before being dragged back to the ground by the .

  You have been afflicted with Poison+3 Poison damage per sedPoison – Duration: 10 minutes. t: 1

  As soon as the toxic miasma touched him, he felt his life begin to drain, and simultaneously an immediate sense of enhanced mental focus as Battle Traivated from the damage and his stamina began tee.

  Perhaps the ‘trance’ part of the name isn’t just fvor, he thought. It was almost as if the world around him was suddenly muted, holding its breath, drawing himself and his oppo into an almost startlingly enhanced crity. He was still getting used to the mental po of his Battle Trance, and he had been surprised to find that the skill was very liberal with what it sidered to be a valid trigger. Seemingly anything that damaged him would trigger it – including poisons, or damage he transferred to himself with Arboreal Sanctuary.

  He refocused, spendih and mana to maximize his opening attack. His Swipe struck the wyvern uhe left wing, staggering it as the bone armor fractured and splintered under his powerful strike. Ohing was for certain – with the enhanced mental crity, he had to watch out for overthinking during battle.

  He settled in, fog his mind on his potent battle senses as his skill warned him of the vicious tail strike just in time for him to bloe of the damage. He attacked again, w to build up his restoration ahrough as much of the monster’s armor as he could.

  The wyveraliated with a spray of green poison from between its bony jaws. He had long since given up to avoid that attack, simply taking the increase in poison damage, and relying on his Brutal Restoration and high vitality to e.

  Your Poison has increased to 2.

  As it was the focus of his test, Mato noticed the exastant when ’s disied into tiny motes of light, drifting softly into the surrounding darkness before fading away. The skeletal wyvern clearly noticed too and immediately spread its bony wings and uself into the air with a dismissive screech.

  I wonder how… Immediately, he sehe opportunity as his Swipe: Battle Master skill pulsed in his mind. He reared up and swiped downwards feeling a shog rush of power and momentum in his strike. His cwed paw smmed into the wyvern, tearing long gashes across the bony fnk, and smming it back to the ground to the tune of a painful grunt. Instantly, dozens of tough, gnarled brown roots attached to the stone sprang up awihe wyvern’s legs and tail, even growing in through its ribcage, preventing it from fleeing.

  Awesome, now you ’t ignore me anymore! Not eveed realization that he had missed an opportunity to use the overp strike to fuel even more of his Brutal Restoratioed his etion at being able to face his foe on an even footing.

  The wyvern roared in frustration and shed out, striking Malika with its tail. Mato transferred most of the damage from the attaself using his Arboreal Sanctuary skill, and as he did, he felt his Swipe: Battle Master trigger again. Not questioning it, Mato retaliated instantly, this time fully emp the strike with both Brutal Restoration aial bat, striking the wyvern on the wing and shattering the bone in a spray of splinters. His restoration magic spiked sharply from the sheer power of his attack, and more roots sprang from the stoangling with the wyvern’s legs, ensuring it could not fly away.

  Yes! I love this skill!

  Undead were not reputed to be particurly smart, and the skeletal wyvern was no exception, persistently trying to escape and allowing him to finish the battle quickly with a few powerful, well-pced retaliatory strikes.

  “Wow, that was impressive!” Ali said, gratuting him. “You killed it by yourself, and so quickly.”

  “The roots make it a very strong trol skill,” said, thoughtfully writing in his notebook.

  “That strike looks incredibly powerful,” Malika said. “Did you fet to enhahe first one?”

  “Yup,” Mato answered as he transformed back so he could speak. It had been such a rigger for the skill that he had simply seized on it in the moment and fotten his two support skills. But every single oerward he had spent the health and mana gdly, for the sheer power and effectiveness of the attack. “And it has a high crit rate, the killing blow was a crit and it felt like crag an egg.”

  “You don’t have that much dexterity for crits, though?” queried.

  “It seems to use strength, more like a crushing blow than a precision attack.” It was about the best way he could expin how the attack felt when it nded. His power had been enhanced as if his strength had suddenly doubled, and the bone under his paw had shattered like eggshells from the impact of his strike. He had certainly not been thinking about the exact perfect location to hit, focused only on hitting with all his might.

  Mindful of new notifications, he said, “Give me a sed.”

  Yroup has defeated Skeletal Wyvern – Undead Dragon – level 31.

  Druidic Shapeshifter has reached level 31.+10 attribute points.

  Arboreal Sanctuary has reached level 16.Swipe has reached level 21.Brutal Restoration has reached level 21.Bestial bat has reached level 21.Battle Trance has reached level 3 (+2).

  Identify has reached level 8.

  Perfect! The sound of his level notification chime was the perfect adoro an excellent fight. While most of his skill increases were the results of long hours slogging through the ruined buildings, rather than this single solo challenge against a skeletal wyvern, Mato felt a certain satisfa at the timely synicity. He quickly distributed his ten points as evenly as he could among vitality, endurance, perception, and wisdom.

  Dusting off his hands, he cracked his ned said, “Right, what’s ? Undead pancakes?”

  “Yuck,” Ali said pointedly.

  Malika snickered, “I vote we fire the cook.”

  Malika

  It’s a good thing he’s so loud, Malika thought, refleg on her situation, once again fighting deep inside one of the buildings.

  The problem was that she couldn’t see a thing. had his crazy eyes that could see in almost total darkness, and Mato had his Survival Instinct, which also enhanced his regur senses. Even Ali could ‘see’ using her mana sight. But here she was, stu a pitch-dark underground dungeon, inside a ruined, bone-covered building, with nothing more than her ordinary un-enhanced human eyes.

  She, an Ahn Khen desdent, was the only person in their group without any enhanced sehe irony was definitely not lost on her.

  Perhaps I should look for a perception skill , she thought, charging in the dire of the sound of Mato’s roar. Her head cracked hard against the magical wall of bohat some stupid Kobold had cast in the darkness. It was the third time so far – just in this building. She stepped bad unched herself upward, sprinting up the side of the wall with tid steps and vaulting into a flip over the top and the darkness beyond.

  A sudden flicker of red fred in the dark and she instantly got her bearings. Landing lightly on her feet, she spped Mato’s fnk with a hand as she sprinted past him and his cozy huddle of skeletons, healing him baaximum.

  “I got the Fire Mage!” Mato, of course, couldn’t answer her, but she knew he adjusted his strategy when she provided him with more information. She puhe mage, and by the light of its firebolt, kicked the two other skeletons lurking in the darkness before turning and sprinting back to where she could hear Mating the skeletons up the stairs almost as if they were leashed to his bear tail.

  She punched again, hitting the skeletons beside Mato, adding Soul Strike, not because she o kill them, but more so that she could make out the stairs by the fsh of her magid not trip and fall on her face again.

  He’s poisoned again, she realized, dropping another heal on Mato. She would have to watch him a little more closely when they finally reached the top.

  Malika burst out of the stairwell onto the rooftop, and into the beautiful light cast by ’s magic, with a horde of skeletons and Kobolds on her heels. Much better! Suddenly able to see, she quickly sed the monsters for any particurly dangerous variants, but this time there were no healers – her the holy nor the death kind.

  “Fireball!” Ali called out, and simultaneously steel lightning nova totems nded by her feet in the ter of the monster group, while an intense red glow lit the jagged stone of the rooftop.

  Malika spped Mato again, erasing the damage his restoration had not been able to cope with before she dodged sideways out of the path of Ali’s magic. She took a moment to sweep a skeleton’s legs out from beh it before crushing another bony ribcage with a satisfyingly chy elbow strike. While it staggered, she kicked it squarely iernum, knog it backward into the path of Ali’s Fireball.

  Bone fragments flew and gobs of fire rained down as Malika dodged ba to heal Mato, using her Diviep to accelerate her run so that she would take less damage from the lightning novas. She nded her heal with a quick toud then healed herself as she dodged out, just in time to avoid the brunt of the sed fireball. One more round, and she was stepping over the charred and burnt fragments of skeletons and corpses as they crumpled, smoking to the ground.

  “Easy!” Mato said, transf back to his regur form.

  Easy for you, you didn’t have to run into a bone wall in the middle of the darkness. She smiled though, because he was right, this was getting a lot easier with practice.

  And with level-ups, she added, hearing her chimes go off.

  Soul Monk has reached level 28.+10 attribute points.

  Soul Strike has reached level 16.Healing Mantra has reached level 17 (+2).Perfect Body has reached level 14.Martial Artist has reached level 12.Enlightened Evasion has reached level 15.Diviep has reached level 15.

  Every level ts! Malika divided six points evenly into endurance, perception, and wisdom, dropping the remaining four into dexterity. Thirty’s ing, just got to keep pressing on, because I don’t want anyone using me like that ever again! Realizing what she’d just thought, she pressed her fist against her mouth. Fet them. They’re dead, remember?

  No, there was no instant heal for that kind of pain.

  Aliandra

  Ali colpsed to the stone floor, propping her back up against the polished stone wall beside Malika. She was bone-weary, in the kind of numb haze that came from tinual focus and tration and hours of tinually p spells with her mana. She would o take the time to resummon some of her minions if they were going to tinue, but she desperately hoped they would decide to go home a some rest. Either way, the summoning could wait for a bit.

  The end of the ring had seemed so close, so they had decided to press on and finish it – but the fighting had gone on for hours, drawn out by an influx of undead from the unexplored underground basements as they passed. By the time they had reached the ruined armory, she ent.

  “I’m done,” she wheezed. She had made several mistakes i battle, and it had cost over half her minions, making the battle st substantially lohan it would have otherwise.

  “Me too,” Malika answered, sounding at least as tired as she felt. Mato just grunted from his spot lying oone, and was o be found, having vao scout out the building. Ali had no idea where he found the energy.

  It was an achievement, though. Beyond the ruined walls of the armory, seen through the shattered window frame, Ali could make out the jagged edge of the granite foundation of the city ring where it had been snapped through, causing about a third of the eructure to vanish like some gargantuan monster had simply taken a bite out of the city before slipping back to whichever eldritch realm it called home. Reag the end of the ri they would be able to take a break, and when they returhey po tackle the third and final ring.

  “I hope the dungeo respawhing while we rest,” Ali sighed. The city was so different now – almost unreizable pared to her memories – a broken dark ruin filled with undead and monsters. A duhat needed culling before they could even liberate the remains of what had once been a vibrant city full of life, magid learning. Her home.

  “Me too,” Malika said, clearly too weary to summon more words.

  What’s left of it. Ali had to remind herself that it was gone several times a day. It simply didn’t feel real sometimes. While killing the monsters, and undead, destroying the dungeon, and liberating her home gave her a sense of purpose, it was hard for her that even after they succeeded, at best she would have liberated a pile of a broken stone. Her home was gone – gone for millennia now – and without the people, magic, books, and everything, all she would have liberated would be a ruin. A curiosity for the explorers, archeologists, and historians of this age.

  “Do you want a cookie?” Mato said, rolling back up to sitting.

  “Are you for real?” Ali asked, perking up.

  “I have chocote chip cookies in here,” he said, rummaging around in his pack, before produg his incredible treasure. “Just chocote, or chocote with nuts?”

  “Ten of each!”

  “Huh. Even A Mistresses should start with one.”

  Making a great show of begrudging the aato dropped a ky cookie onto her palm. Ali bit delicately into the chocote goodness, sighed so hard she physically shuddered, and then before she could even blink, it was gone, and Mato was chug.

  “Hey, I found something down below!” said, returning suddenly, catg Ali’s attention with his ued excitement.

  “What is it?” She looked up to see him shifting quickly out of the shadows as his magic faded from his shrouded form.

  “Aah, you’ve got to see it!” His motes of light sprang up from his hands floating upward toward the ceiling, filling the room with brightness as he eagerly beed to them to follow.

  “Catch,” Mato said, tossing him a cookie which he snatched out of the air with a deft hand and a raised eyebrow, but when he realized what he’d caught, a grin crossed his face.

  Ali levered herself up to standing wearily and decided that walking might be less work than using her barrier magic. She followed down the long winding stoairs he had found at the back of the room for much lohan she would have liked, before emerging into a dark room with a polished stone floor.

  No dust, she thought, the small detail before ’s lights floated out into the giant expanse of the room, and what she saw took her breath away. As the lights reached the distant walls, they revealed rows and rows of reddish-bck steel shapes gleaming with the characteristic dark of Eimuuran steel. Everything at ground level was goripped bare, but hanging from the walls, beyond the reach of the undead, the glory of the fi work of Dal’mohra’s legendary fes was still proudly on dispy.

  “Wow,” Malika excimed quietly, staring at the rows and rows of halberds, swords, daggers, maces, axes, and armor. “ you imagine showing this room to Thuli?”

  “I think he might have a heart attack,” Mato answered, chug as he stepped deeper into the armory.

  In that moment, Ali felt a small surge of pride rekindled within her. Her home might be lost forever, and her path forward unclear, but even the ruins of what had once been, still held the power to impress her and her friends. Tiredness fotten, she walked into the room and summoned a rge barrier in front of Malika who was staring up at the equipment dispyed well out of reach with a look of longing on her face.

  Ali hopped onto the barrier and invited Malika to join her, enjoying how her expression suddenly ged to excitement as she suddenly uood what Ali intended. With a simple gesture of her reinvigorated will, she flew them both up to the dispys and stopped within reach of a set of beautifully crafted longswords. With clear reverence mixed with excitement, Malika lifted one off the wall mounting and tur over in her hands.

  “This is incredible,” she whispered.

  ***

  “Ali, do you want any of this gear for yrimoire?” Malika asked. They had spent half an hour flying around the armory colleg whatever Malika had wanted, and now they were sitting on the floor in the middle of the enormous armory surrounded by an array of ons and armor, carefully anized by type and fun. Eimuurao one side, bone ons and armor to the other.

  “Isn’t this all quite valuable?” Ali asked. She had expected Malika would want to sell most of it.

  “Yes, it is. I’ve been discarding the poor quality and broken stuff and even just keeping the good items – only, I’m out of ste space. Even all this bone equipment the dungeoed is at least masterwork quality. Anything you learn and make ter is another piece I don’t have to carry back. And it will make you strooo.”

  “I don’t have any free chapters, but I learn the swords, armor, and shields at least,” Ali answered. That would cover quite a lot of the gear Malika had collected, and hopefully, between the four of them, they would be able to carry the rest. At least, itting the shields and pte armor trimoire would take care of most of the heaviest stuff.

  Variant: Eimuuran Steel Scimitar added to Imprint: SwordVariant: Bone Shortsword added to Imprint: SwordVariant: Steel Bulwark added to Imprint: Shield…Variant: Eimuuran Steel Cuirass added to Imprint: ArmorVariant: Boudded Leather added to Imprint: Armor

  Ali’s imprints exploded with new information, and as the runes flowed into the inscriptions, her magiifested more and more pages, growing the size of her Grimoire visibly as she deleted hundreds of kilograms of steel and bone. What remained were the vambraces, helms, sabatons, and ons she had no imprint space for – and several items that were of unknown level – higher thahought she could learn at her current skill level.

  “Thanks, Ali, that’s much better,” Malika said, beginning to divvy up the most valuable remainio each of them so they could help store it all, the majority going to Mato who had both a mundane pad his ste ring. “We really o get you two the upgraded guild ring soon. It’s supposed to e with a lot more ste capacity.”

  “Let’s do that tomorrow,” Mato agreed. “I o stop by Thuli’s a some repairs for my armor.”

  “There’s something strange over here,” called out, interrupting the versation. “I ’t quite make it out.” He had his small dagger out and oking and prodding at an unremarkable se of wall and scrutinizing it closely uhe light of his magid presumably with his potent perception skill.

  Curious, Ali walked over to join him, but she couldn’t see much of anything strange.

  “I don’t see anything?”

  “Look at this,” he said, jabbing his dagger at a differeion of the wall than the one he had been examining, making a king, scraping sound as the metal bde stabbed tiny chips and scratches in the polished stone finish.

  “So?” Ali wasn’t quite sure what he was getting at with this demonstration. Maybe I’m just too tired.

  “Now look at this part,” he said, repeating the same exercise on the se of wall he had been studying so ily. The sounds were the same, but when he dusted the wall with his hand, Ali suddenly saw what had caught his attention. Something was off about the entire wall, the dagger had left no marks, and even besides that, it seemed that the polished stone looked just a tiny bit too perfect.

  “I saw something like this in the library,” Ali said, her i suddenly piqued. Fog on the ambient mana, she noticed a simir ana flowing through the space before her – an effect so subtle that she had simply not noticed it before had drawtention to it with his dagger experiment.

  “That one was a very sophisticated illusion, it even masked the mana signature…” Ali trailed off as she focused her destruagi the unusual area of the wall. As before, her magic seemed to shimmer and disappear as it came into tact with the wall, as the illusion suppressed her sight of her own magic. After a few seds, the space around the wall twisted impossibly and then snapped back to reality with a puff of disrupted a mana and a sense of shattering an invisible magical formation.

  The pin, unadorned se of the wall was gone, and in its pce was an exquisitely crafted door of the same marble as the wall. Not seeing any further magical formations, Ali reached out and tried the handle, but it refused to budge.

  “Here, let me try,” Malika said, stepping forward with her fancy lockpig tools already in her hands. For someone who ostensibly didn’t enjoy burgry, Malika was certainly getting a lot of practice with her lockpig today. It took only a few moments of poking and twisting before the door made an audible clid swung open with a loud grinding sound – and fortunately, no explosion this time.

  Beyond the doorway y a small dusty room filled with stoables and alcoves – many of which stood empty or filled with indistinctly shaped piles of dust that may once have been something on dispy.

  However, not everything had succumbed to the passage of time. On the wall were a couple of pieces of armor, a shield, and a feons that gleamed with the characteristic color of Eimuuran steel, but there was an additional swirl of unfamiliar bck mana that Ali had never entered before tellihat there was something different about these pieces.

  “What is this pce?” Ali asked. The armory had not been one of her on hangout spots, and so she had absolutely no idea what they might find in the regur space, let alone some secret vault hidden by an illusion and a locked door.

  “I think it’s the secret operations armory, or something simir,” Malika answered.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Most govers have spies and cents for secret work. Probably this pce is for their equipment. The gear in here seems tailored for specific purposes, and not the kind of stuff you might advertise to the general public. Here, look at these.” Malika drew her attention to a set of daggers arrayed on a stoable, and as she brushed some of the dust off, Ali saw the gleam of the metal and the bck wisps of mana that seemed to hungrily absorb any light that fell upon them.

  Eimuuran Darksteel Dagger – level 25 (Shadow)Masterfully crafted from Eimuuran Darksteel, this dagger has been enhao cloak your attacks with shadow magitments.Damage: Pierg, Physical, ShadowAdditional Shadow damage on hitMana: Cloak yger with obsg shadowsRequirements: 88 DexterityOne Handed – Dagger – Eimuuran Darksteel

  “Darksteel?” Ali asked, examining the bde. At least her identify told her what the unfamiliar mana was.

  “Everything in here is Darksteel – it’s a type of metal that is ideal for shadow magitments. And the craftsmanship is excellent. Here, let me show you.” Malika picked up one of the daggers, and with a little infusion of her mana, the bde, hilt, and even half of Malika’s arm was instantly shrouded by an ever-shifting cloak of shadows that ed as she waved her arm bad forth, making the bde impossible to pin down visually. Even with her mana sight, Ali struggled to track it.

  “It’s an assassin’s on,” Malika said. “Not that I would endorse assassination, but they should be very good for yues, especially attag with ambush from stealth.”

  Hopefully, my rogues have enough dexterity to use these, Ali thought, examining the bde after Malika ha back to her. At least there were several of them and the level ranges overpped with at least her highest-level rogues.

  Variant: Eimuuran Darksteel Dagger added to Imprint: Dagger.

  Ali looked up to find Malika staring at a bck metal-bound staff hanging on the wall.

  “You ok?”

  “It’s nothing,” Malika said, brushing off a thought. But then she seemed to resider and tinued. “It’s a perfect monk staff. My dad used to use staves, and he would have loved something like this.”

  Ironwood Staff of Shadows – level 37 (Shadow)Crafted from a single bough of Ironwood and bound with Eimuuran Darksteel, this staff has been enhao cloak your attacks with shadow magitments.Damage: Blunt, PhysicalAdditional Shadow damage on hit+10% ce to bloa: Cloak your staff with obsg shadowsRequirements: Dexterity 130Two Handed – Quarterstaff – Ironwood

  “That has three ents on it!” Ali excimed. She had heard of such prodigious feats of crafting, but she had never personally seen such a thing.

  “Yes, this is a very valuable on. It's an unon grade item.”

  “You should take it if it reminds you of your father,” Ali said. She had her father’s shrine, and silly as it sounded, simply having something she could touch that reminded her of her parents had helped her manage her feelings – feelings of being disected from her family and the safety of her past world.

  “My skills all require me to be unarmed,” Malika said, her hands finally reag for the staff and lifting it from its mounting on the wall. “But I’m sure Weldin will give us enough moo pay for a whole lot of potions.” She turned and gri Ali before st the staff and moving on to the dispy.

  “Why is so much of this room just dust?” Ali asked as she watched Malika collect up the few remaining pieces.

  “Gover secret ops probably employed a lot ues, and most of them don’t have the strength for pte armor. The bulk of what was in here robably leather, and that doesn’t st as long as ented steel.”

  This was an aspect of Dal’mohra that had beeirely outside her awareness growing up. The idea of a secret force ues carrying out missions in the shadows seemed scary. It immediately called to mind several – admittedly popur – stories of deception and corruption in the urban underworld as spies and agents vied for influend power with the tools of intrigue and murder that Ryn had reeo her. Ali shivered, gd that she had not had to deal with anything like that in real life.

  timewalk