Chapter 105, 1/2

Chapter 105, 1/2

The horizon was an orange sandpit in every direction, with few clouds hanging in the blue above. Warm winds flowed from the north, and sand had gotten into Justine’s shoes. In a few hours, she’d have chafing. She was only level twelve; most of her points had gone into the few spells she needed to advance, and to get up to 20 in Willpower and Focus, as well as the tripling Skills for more Mana and Mana Regen. Thank Erick for his rings and that extra Strength, else she’d have blood blisters, for sure, as well as a horrendous sunburn. Her white skin burned rather easily under full sunlight, and 600 Health helped to mitigate much of that possibility. Her eyes were still at risk of sun blindness, but she’d only be out here for a little while. All this place could offer her was level 32, or maybe 34, if she wanted to spend five hours in the sun, instead of two.

The road to high level was long, and dangerous, but even with all of that in front of her, she couldn’t help but feel happy. She smiled at the sky, and then turned toward Ophiel, and the white map hovering above the sands. Studying it had not taken long; there were no people within a hundred kilometers. Justine and Ophiel were alone out here, in the middle of nowhere. Erick was here in spirit and in the eyes of the Ophiel flying high above, but he wasn’t really here.

The Ophiel currently controlled by Erick pointed north west.

Erick said, “It’s a hundred meters that way. I could blip you closer?”

Justine chuckled. She began walking north west, saying, “I haven’t walked more than the length of your house, in a week. This feels good.” She said, “The sun. The wind.” She smirked, as she kicked the sand. “The sand.” She admitted, “Though I do need to make myself a better pair of shoes.”

“I could get you shoes?”

Justine shook her head. “No thank you. You’ve done a great deal for me already.” And he had. Justine arrived at Erick’s house with nothing. But he had given her fabrics and plants and shelter from the Darkness. One of the only ‘non essential’ spells she picked up since then was [Fabricate]. Her shoes were self-made, along with her brown pants and white blouse. She was not a seamstress, but she could get by, and [Fabricate] helped to smooth out the small mistakes that hand creation would have caused. Justine would never be selling her clothes in any sort of shop, but not many people could. She said, “I’ll make myself a better pair, once I get back and I have the mana to spare for more [Fabricate]s.”

Ophiel floated forward, slightly, as he casually wreathed himself in light.

After a moment Erick said, “Only about sixty meters ahead, past those dunes.”

Justine smiled, and headed up the first of many dunes. Sand scattered down the slope as she trudged upward, her feet not sinking in too far at all. This was fine. When she reached the top, the vista of the Crystal Forest stretched out before her; undulating waves of orange under a blue, windy sky. Here and there sat crystal mimics, like splashes of glitter interrupting the horizon. The nearest one was only a dune away, its stigma barely visible on the other side of the sand. It was moving.

Gently, like it was simply repositioning itself, the stigma of the crystal mimic rose above the dune. It was probably positioning to get into the sun better, but whatever the case for the movement, it didn’t really matter. The upper spikes of the mimic were coming into view.

Justine waited for a good angle, and hoped that the mimic wasn’t preparing to attack her before she got a chance to attack it.

But honestly, though, she wasn’t in any real danger. The worst case scenario here, was that she embarrassed herself in front of Erick; unable to kill a mimic in one or two shots. Erick would certainly kill it if it got within ten meters of her. He had even said so, many times, probably to assure both her and himself that he wasn’t going to let her get hurt on his watch. That was good, and fine.

But Justine hoped to Koyabez that she wouldn’t embarrass herself. Erick might be an archmage, but Justine was twice his age, with many times his magical experience. She had killed much worse things than crystal mimics in order to survive, and at much lower levels than 12. The spell she had made for today was created in a corner of her room, against two expendable plants. It was adequate, but it wasn’t great.

The mimic came fully into view. It stopped atop the dune, and dug in with its bottom crystal spikes, securing itself to the crest. Ah, Justine realized, it was just repositioning for the sun. She knew that mimics positioned for the sun. Why had she thought that it was coming for her? She was too far away. Of course she was too far away.

She breathed. She could do this.

She did not point. She did not move, to give a hint that she was attacking. She just cast from the air around her body; from her aura. Red splashes of bright Decay pulsed from her body, one after the other, the first one still arcing in the air, toward the mimic, as Justine fired the third red Bolt. Red magics hit the mimic, center mass, like a rotten melon, splashing red light onto crystalline limbs, as Justine cast again, and again.

The mimic chimed into action like jumble of angry greatswords, clashing against itself, briefly, before it rotated and saw Justine.

She had no idea how these particular monsters could see their prey from this far away, and yet, if you didn’t disturb them, if you just walked outside of ten meters from them, they would leave you alone, most of the time. But strike at one from well outside of their range, and they instantly recognized who had attacked them, from even this far away.

Justine’s red splashes kept striking as the mimic tried to rush down the dune. Red soaked into crystal. Crystal broke. Red splashed across the mimic’s central spike, finally doing enough damage to crack the stigma. The top spike of the monster fell to the ground, like so many other crystalline spikes, as the mimic kept rushing toward Justine, clawing forward on whatever crystal spikes it could.

She almost smiled. Her spells were actually doing enough damage, thanks to Erick’s rings.

Plant Killer Bolt, instant, long range, 23 Mana

A bolt of splashing decay unerringly strikes a target, dealing WIL damage per second for 3 seconds. Deals 3x damage to plants.

The mimic survived the initial onslaught, but barely. It tumbled down the dune like a broken chandelier, all crystal and sludge and oozy juveniles tucked into its ‘leaves’. The babies were bubbling away like their parent, but not nearly as bad. They might survive her attack for they weren’t plants yet, since they weren’t actually [Polymorph]ed into crystal agave.

Justine threw more bolts at the broken adult. Decay was great for a dozen different reasons, but its main selling point was that you could create spells that were artificially stronger against specific creatures, much easier than you could with the vast majority of other alters. In this case, Justine’s spell had been created to work well against ‘all plants’, and little else. She could have made a magic specifically against crystal mimics, but she would have needed to experiment on the creatures to create that magic. That would have been overkill, by Justine’s estimation, since extra damage versus all plants was fine for the long run. But still... She had hoped that her [Plant Killer Bolt] would have been better than it was. She had not killed one of these things in a long, long time. She had forgotten their toughness, and past a certain toughness, Decay’s failings became apparent; Decay just couldn’t harm like other magics. It certainly didn’t help that her base spell was [Force Bolt].

Justine threw another bolt of red sludge at the pile of blue sludge that had been the crystal mimic. And then another. Finally, a blue box hovered into the air.

You have slain Crystal Mimic A!

95% participation!

+20,693,935 exp

Justine smiled as she breathed deep the desert air. Just like that, she was level 24. 12 levels gained on one monster.

Erick spoke up, “Splashy bolts?”

Justine shared the blue box for [Plant Killer Bolt] with Erick, saying, “I’ll make something better once I can come out here on my own to cast and experiment, if for no other reason than to be able to kill a mimic in one spell.” She looked to the melting pile of mimic, saying, “I had forgotten they were this tough.”

“Do you need to rest?”

“Nope!” Justine said, “I’m doing great.”

And she was. Today was much better than last night. She smiled at the sky, as she dumped those twelve levels of points into her Focus, bringing her natural Focus into the 40s. A few more mimic kills and she could get Scion of Focus— Hmm. Later. Not right now. Not when she was out here, killing mimics. When she got back home, though, then she would allocate that Skill. She didn’t want her Scion Revelation to knock her out when she was supposed to be hunting.

“Do you want the rad?” Erick asked, as Ophiel hovered a meter towards the blue sludge.

Justine looked at the dead mimic. “... I probably destroyed it. Decay isn’t very good about leaving intact corpses and I know I did not craft this spell well enough to have it ignore rads.” She looked closer at the body. It was utterly still. “Not even the juveniles survived.”

Ophiel dipped in acknowledgment, then pointed to the north east. Justine began walking down the dune, in the pointed direction.

Erick asked, “What sort of vision do you have when you allocate your Scion, as a shadeling?”

Justine almost faltered. “Uh.” She took a step down the dune, steadying herself, thinking of what she wanted to say. She decided to say, “It’s a talk with Melemizargo. Usually, it doesn’t go so well, with him not being all there, but last time... Last time he was rather present. That’s a recent change. I’ll get Koyabez, this time, though. Or maybe Rozeta. I’m not sure.” She added, “I even got [Shadow Healing] last time, and that’s never happened before.”

“I thought shadelings didn’t get healing spells?”

“They don’t. No one would consider [Shadow Healing] a healing spell. It’s just called that. It’s all a recent change, too.” Justine made it back down to the flat land between the dunes. “Back before Particle Magic brought him back to some sanity, you were lucky to get the Scion you wanted when you picked a Scion. Sometimes your Stats would change to reflect his decision, too. One time, when I was working for Cludolphis, the Shade of Mending, she had me killed and brought back three times, because I needed Scion of Focus to assist with repairs to the city. I kept getting Scion of Vitality.” As Justine walked up another dune, she said, “This [Shadow Healing] is completely new.”

“What does it do?”

“Not a lot.” She said, “It was worse than [Rejuvenation]. I’m not sure why I got that spell, either.” She said, “I didn’t talk much during the Revelation.”

“... I’m glad I made that [Shadow Radiance].”

Justine smiled as she neared the top of another dune; she was getting a real workout, out here under the merciless sun, atop these sandy dunes. She said, “I’m glad you made that [Shadow Radiance], too. I’m sure it will help a lot of people come back to themselves.” She crested the dune.

The mimic was on top of another dune, thirty meters away.

Erick said, “What kind of [Fly] are you going to make?”

“Just a platform... Maybe. Flat, unadorned.” She focused on the mimic, and cast. Red Bolts flowed through the air, slamming into the mimic, splashing from stigma to center, coating the mimic in bubbling red power.

Fifteen Bolts later, Justine got another notification and gained more levels, then said, “It’ll be weird not having [Shadow Blend]. Usually I’d just make a [Crystal Platform] and Blend myself into it, and fly anywhere I needed to fly.” Ophiel pointed forward, and Justine walked. As sand followed her down the dune and got into her shoes, Erick’s question over [Fly] settled into her mind. She said, “Actually. I probably need to change that platform plan. As a Scion of Focus, I really should consider making an aura.”

“Auras are great!” Erick said, “I made mine with [Airshape], [Telekinesis], 500 Mana shaping, and Aurify.”

Justine almost shuddered. She knew about that spell of Erick’s, of course; it was part of her required knowledge for becoming the ‘face’ of Candlepoint for Erick, when he first arrived at the shadeling city. How he had ever managed to make that spell cost 1 mana per second was ridiculous.

She said, “I’ll try that one, but I doubt I can be that successful.”

“Maybe you can!”

As she smiled, Justine threw a few more points in Focus, just to get up to 50. She had worked hard to get Meditation high enough to use in the field, and Clarity high enough to chop off some of her spell costs, but almost none of her Skills or Spells were at 10. She had barely done enough to do what she was doing right now, and would never have chosen to go mimic hunting if it weren’t for Erick’s oversight. His rings helped a lot. At 100 Focus, it was a little over 15 seconds to regenerate enough mana to fire a single [Plant Killer Bolt], meaning 4 minutes to regenerate enough to kill a single mimic. That was fine. The walk from one mimic to the next was almost enough to regenerate that much mana. But besides all that, this ‘hunt’ was much, much easier than even the nicest strolls on the most empty skyroads of Ar’Kendrithyst.

But after the first twenty minutes, and five mimics, the sun was getting to be a bit too much. Maybe she should have made herself a hat, too—

Ophiel handed her a wide brim, white hat, with holes for her horns, along with a pair of dark glasses, both of which were in a style completely unlike Justine had seen before; moreso the glasses, than the hat. They were full face coverage, and iridescent. The hat was just wide, stiff, and white.

Justine didn’t know what to say.

Erick said, “I see you squinting.”

Justine smiled softly, then put the hat on her head, making sure to string her horns through the openings. Almost instantly, the hot day felt less oppresive, as the northern breeze brushed through her airy clothes, and across her shaded neck. “Thank you.” She held the glasses, but paused. She glanced at the rod of [Treat Wounds], stuck in Ophiel’s feathers, and decided that she could deal with a bit of sun blindness from wearing dark glasses. She put the glasses on.

... There was something different about these glasses. Something cooler. They were easier to see through than other desert glasses she had worn before. Were they enchanted to remove the natural Blind effect of the light from the sun? They certainly seemed that way, but she wouldn’t be able to tell until the hunt was over, and she was back home, possibly nursing a Blinding headache.

Justine paid the glasses no more mind, and walked forward, up another dune, to spot another mimic on the ridge of another dune, just ahead. She blasted it from a few different parts of her body, getting a feel for her aura.

“... Thank you.” Ava said, “I suppose you would know more than most.” She clicked her tongue, taking on a harder demeanor, as she said, “But everyone and their sister has a tragedy of loss in their history. At least some of my people managed to escape and survive. Perhaps, one day I will visit them, and hear for myself what befell our people.” She looked to Ophiel, “But your story is stranger than mine. I cannot say that I have ever interacted with a true Planar, archmage.”

“Please, call me Erick.”

Ava paused. She said, “With your leave, I shall do this.” She tested the word, “Erick.”

“My whole world isn’t gone. It’s still out there. I’ll just never see it again. But I still have my daughter. We fell here together.” Erick said, “She’s enough for me.”

Ava’s whole being softened, for a moment. Then she stood straighter, saying, “That is good. You can treasure the most important things, and discard the rest.” She looked to the mimic, as her voice took on a conspiratorial edge, “Has anyone discovered the purpose behind the mimics, or their creator, since I’ve been dead?”

Erick thought for a moment. He said, “I’ve heard conflicting stories. Half of them say that the mimics were a creation of Ar’Kendrithyst. Half say that the mimics were a misguided attempt at starving Ar’Kendrithyst of resources.” He added, “Apparently there’s an open Kill and Exterminate Quest from Atunir to kill them all, but no one has received this Quest in 800 years and Atunir isn’t forthcoming. It is possible that both stories are true. Maybe a Shade created them to harm the other Shades.”

“Drat.” Ava said, “I was always hoping for someone to solve that mystery for me.” She asked, “How is Spur, anyway?”

“It’s doing well. Rains are feeding crops and the city is bustling.”

Out of the blue, Ava asked, “Is Slip a Shade?”

“Ha!” Erick said, “I have no idea.”

“Are you going to try to kill him?”

Erick sighed, then said, “Not... No. I will not.” He said, “You were likely alive back when they were killing Shades every other week, and there were hundreds upon hundreds. But when Silverite pushed her city forward as a group to end them all, 104 years ago, they pushed back as a group. The Shades killed most of Spur, and Silverite changed who she was. Now, there’s only maybe-40 Shades. The first new Shade to appear in a long time was Bulgan, a little over ten months ago.”

“He was the one that controlled Candlepoint before, wasn’t he?”

“Yes. He also has a large grudge against my daughter, for showing him up when he was still a member of Spur’s Adventurer’s Guild.” Erick said, “He tried to kill my daughter and I, but he failed. After that happened but before we could do anything about it, he left for the Dead City. Apparently he’d been working for Tania Webwalker, the Champion of Melemizargo, for years, at that point.”

Ava, already pale, paled a bit further. Then she relaxed into the sun, saying, “That’s enough horror for now.”

“I have a hard time coming to terms with it all, as well.” Erick handed her a green hat, and sunglasses, saying, “Care for a hat and glasses?”

“Oh! Perfect.” Ava took the hat and the glasses, and put them on, saying, “It is rather bright today, and [Conjure Item] is too far down on the list of necessities, you know.” She stepped forward, saying, “And now the mana is finally full again. Let’s do this.”

Erick watched.

Ava dipped her hand down into the sand, and with fingers flared, she pulled up five stones, one at the end of each finger, each of them two centimeters across. She pointed. She fired. Like a bullet from a gun, the rock launched, breaking the sound barrier, scattering wind and flashing bright for the briefest of moments. The mimic faltered, then righted. Ava had struck center mass. She fired again. Two seconds had passed, and one crystalline spike, three meters long, broke off, as the mimic chimed into action, racing down the hill toward Ava.

She fired three more times. Her final shot blew a bleeding blue hole large enough to see through in the central stalk, near the top. The mimic had only reached the bottom of its dune, and no further. Blood flowed from the monster as it rolled to a heavy crash and died. Ava relaxed. She gave the barest notice to the air; likely dismissing a kill notification, among other boxes.

“That was impressive,” Erick said. “And no level 10 spells? No tier 2 spells?”

“Not a single one!” Ava waved a dismissive hand, saying, “Altering is useful at all levels of spellwork. You just won’t know your true capabilities until you make the tier 2 spell box.”

“... Right.” Erick knew that. “It’s been a while since I practiced with lower level spells.”

She added, “[Rock Bolt] was my very first spell. I could cast that in my sleep.”

Ophiel pointed toward the north, as Erick said, “That way to the next one.”

Ava smirked, and took off walking, strolling down the dune, her feet never sinking below the surface. She was practically walking on concrete, or maybe something slightly softer.

As they reached the dip between sandy hills, Erick asked, “What level were you before?”

“85.”

“Impressive!”

She shrugged. “I doubt I’ll get there again. But, you never know. Does wyrm season still exist?”

“Yes. Wyrm season is in five months, or thereabouts.” He said, “85 is rather high.”

“There are lots of monsters in the 90s near the Core. Melemizargo has been trying to breach that Script-blue orb since its creation.”

Script-blue? “... Really?”

Ava paused, then continued, saying, “Well... That’s what we all assumed. Fact and legend and truth are a lot more... fluid, than what most people tell each other. Fact is, the density of the mana that far down ensures that monsters grow a lot stronger than they can on the surface. Another fact is that the Geodes routinely kill as many of those high-leveled monsters as they can, trying to ‘keep others from the danger’ and to ‘protect the core’.” She balked. “As if! Here is another truth: Anyone who can reach the Core can easily kill at least one of those beasts, and thus gain massive power. Getting away is another task entirely, but that is doable, too.” She added, “I always felt that the Geodes worked to keep the power of those high level kills out of the hands of others. But the Dark Dragon is remarkably easy to talk to, these days. Maybe he is trying to breach the Core? But who would want to ask him? I certainly don’t know, and I certainly wouldn’t want to ask him.”

That was a lot to think upon.

While Ava hunted, and Erick oversaw, she asked of shopping opportunities in Spur, and other places. Erick admitted his ignorance on much of all of that; he didn’t get out of the house, much.

“Do you want me to pick you up something specific?” Erick asked. “I could look for something. I’ve already offered this to every other person of power in Candlepoint, and you will qualify for this once you become the actual sewermaster.”

Ava thought for a moment, but quickly waved him off, saying, “I’m going to gain it all, myself.” She smiled, adding, “My first step will be the sewer, of course, but that is only part of my myriad goals. As long as Candlepoint isn’t deemed blasphemy, heresy, and denounced by the world with a hundred thousand [Meteor]s, then my next step is beautifying the entire city. I’ve always wanted to work more in crystal, Erick. And now! Now, I will finally be able to do that, and more.” She exclaimed, “Can you imagine it! A city of crystal that is not full of Shades or wrought! As long as I can get everyone else to agree, of course.”

Erick could imagine Candlepoint as a city of crystal and brilliant architecture, but thinking on it a bit more...

Ar’Kendrithyst was full of shadows, because they could safely ensconce themselves deep in the red-purple crystal of the city. That was why even the strongest adventurers had trouble in there; attacks could come from literally any angle and retaliation would be impossible, for the attackers would all retreat into deep, dark crystals.

By that same merit, crystals in Candlepoint would protect the shadelings.

But it would also be like declaring to the world that they were building defenses, and digging in, either forging a forward base, or a retreat. Some people might not like that.

Erick said, “As long as you go with some friendly coloring. The point is not to be a danger to civilization. Maybe that would be enough. The shadelings do need a defensive structure, but... It might be fine.”

With excitement in her voice, Ava crested the next dune, as she asked, “What are your feelings on green?”

“Mimics go crazy for green.”

“... Right. I had forgotten that.” Ava asked, “White, then?”

Erick looked to the mimic on the next dune. Its crystalline body was not just clear, but also white and blue. Erick offered, “White and blue?”

“Ah, yes.” Ava scooped up five stone bullets from the sand at her feet, then pointed at the mimic, saying, “We have a lake to consider, as well.” Over the next five seconds, she killed the mimic with five expertly released [Rock Bolt]s. When it was dead, she said, “White and blue sounds good.”

“There’s everyone’s votes to consider, too.” Ophiel pointed toward the next dune. As Ophiel and Ava continued on, Erick said, “Whatever everyone decides is fine. Where would you get the crystal, anyway? From sand?”

Ava headed down the dune, saying, “Yes. White should be rather easy to create out of this sand.” She dipped a hand behind her, causing a minor avalanche in the dune as she strolled to the base, saying. “This stuff is mostly quartz. You simply have to know how to put it back together to make the crystal and I know how—”

The dunes rumbled below; a small tremor, but one that belied something shifting under the surface.

Ava went silent, as she stepped backward, then raced back up to the top of the dune.

If there had been a danger, Erick would have gotten her out of there, but as his other Ophiel confirmed, this was just a simple rise of creatures that naturally lived here, that Ophiel’s and Ava’s passing had disturbed. They weren’t even headed in Ava’s direction.

Ava gasped as she gazed upon the shifting horizon, and the creatures rising from below.

In the short distance, two dozen dunes slipped down, as fins lifted up, spilling orange sands across the horizon, billowing clouds of dust into the sky. As grit fell away, gold and glittering scales appeared from a pod of creatures that seemed to have no interest in anything, except escaping the ground, and lifting to the sky as an orchestrated group. They were larger cousins to the goldfish that had once drawn a wyrm toward Erick, Teressa, Poi, and Rats, and they were beautiful in a sharp sort of way. Each the size of a large house, and shaped roughly like tuna, these skyfish had lost the billowing fins and tails of their smaller cousins, but as the sand fully fell away, Erick witnessed those smaller cousins in the shadows of the behemoths, following along, keeping up with the larger skyfish.

Erick smiled to see the procession before him. He found himself wishing he was there, in person...

But he could not be there. He would not put himself in that sort of reckless danger.

But Ava looked happy to be there. She stared at the flying fish, watching as the larger ones flew east, like gentle giants, and the smaller ones trailed behind; toddlers trying to catch up to their parents.

As the skyfish filled the air with glittering gold, they crooned, one after another, a gentle sound that reverberated through Ophiel, that Erick heard in his heart, even though the experience was one step removed. As the school of skyfish ended their first song, the Ophiels above the one beside Ava joined in, crooning deep vibrations upon the world, echoing what they had heard, and yet changing it with the added sounds of violins.

The skyfish didn’t seem to care for Ophiel’s attempt at their song, but it made Erick smile to see Ophiel try to catch their attention.

As the skyfish flew on, and Ava watched them go, she suddenly perked up, going from awe to active in a moment, calling out, “They dropped scales!” She rushed forward, saying, “I want some!”

Erick smiled as he made Ophiel follow Ava, across the orange sands, under the endless blue sky.

Over the next two hours, Ava managed to get to level 30, as well as procure seven good gold scales out of the thousands of broken and discarded remnants that had been left in the skyfishs’ sand pit. Each of those scales were as large as dinner plates, and as bright as polished gold. Erick had no idea what Ava would use them for, but her eyes lit up as she gazed upon their luster; she had plans for them, for sure.