Arcane Knight: An Epic LITRPG Fantasy, page 46
THE GREAT MAZE
I worried that these patent people might be out to kill me after I left the compound, but Regina assured me that wasn’t the way they operated. Now that the magical patent was in place we were safe. Part of the paperwork had involved outlining who would take over the rights of the patent upon our death, I’d chosen my mother, then my siblings, and then just a vague mention of someone outside my bloodline if all other avenues of passing my rights failed. Meanwhile, Regina outlined several dozen people within her House.
By the time I left, the blood was being washed away by buckets of water delivered by a line of Runeforged. What Regina planned to do about the bodies I wasn’t sure, but she did say that all their armor and items would be added to our vault, wherever that might be. I was barely a few steps down the street when I saw a trio headed my way that I recognized. They were laughing and poking fun at the brooding person in the middle, Zander.
“Fancy meeting you here,” Emory called out as I approached. “We cleared Crimson Crusaders twice.” He held up two fingers proudly.
“Where’d Creed get off to?” I asked, acknowledging Emory’s words with a smile.
Ismene frowned. “He’ll be along. He said he needs to take a week to work on his professions, but we wanted to come find you and take you to a dungeon Zander suggested.” Ismene elbowed him as if to tell him it was his turn to speak. He looked nervous and constipated at the same time.
“I’ve only heard it called ‘The Great Maze’,” Zander said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Supposed to be tons of essence if you can find your way to the center.”
“We are one person short,” I said, stating the obvious. “Was it hard to fill my missing spot? And what level range is this great maze?”
Ismene answered first. “Finding a damage dealer was actually as easy as pulling a notice from a board in the dungeon camp, and the level varies in the Maze, its supposed to adjust difficulty based on your group, which is why I thought it’d be a good fit for us!”
I had to admit, that sounded interesting. “I’m willing to give it a try,” I said.
As one, we turned and began to walk the other way. Ismene and Emory found new reasons to tease Zander, who took it all in stride.
We made it as far as the outer gate, when another familiar face crossed our paths. She didn’t see me at first, so I called out to her.
“Fran! Hey there, where’s Fred?” I asked, realizing she walked alone.
She caught my eye and smiled, walking over. “Did you finally get my message I left with the guards?” She asked, looking hopeful.
I hadn’t but I’d found her regardless. “No, sorry I’ve been busy the last few days, but here I am! What’s up?” I asked.
“Well, Fred is saying he wants to do several weeks of profession study so I wanted to see if you wanted to try and tackle a dungeon or two,” she asked, then finally seeing the rest of the group I walked with she added. “If you have any room.”
I smiled. “We actually have the perfect amount of room. Are you ready to go now or do you need to get some supplies?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I’m fine,” she said, patting at a bag on her side. “I’ll finally get some time to drill you on sword play again.”
“Looking forward to it,” I said, truly meaning it. She was a good teacher, and our sparring sessions always left me learning something.
“We’ve all been introduced, right?” I asked, knowing full well that was the case. Fran eyed Zander suspiciously but said nothing about his presence.
Zander informed us how far the dungeon was, somewhere in the northern part of House Variyn lands, but said it was only a two-day ride on a swift horse. Fran, Ismene, and Emory all had horses now that they could summon, however, Ismene surprised me by not summoning a horse but rather a wolf the size of a horse.
“Meet Roger, my wolf,” she said, gesturing to the gigantic white wolf.
It had a mix of white and grey, darker around the face, and end of limbs with a muscular frame that spoke of a powerful stride. Its hair was wild and in need of some taming, but Ismene didn’t seem to mind, walking right up to it and slipping atop without a saddle. It stood just below my shoulders and had blazing deep blue eyes that looked lazily around the group. So far it had the demeanor of a trained house dog, not a wild dire wolf.
The horses summoned by Zander, Emory, and Fran all shot nervous looks in its direction, but still the wolf maintained its even composure.
Roger the wolf was a mighty beast, but Ismene had it fully under control.
I summoned Ares and she looked around at the mounts, unimpressed. She raised her head high and I could tell she was trying to communicate to the other four that each of them, Roger included, weren’t her equals. Then she turned and nuzzled me, as if to say she obviously didn’t mean me. In all it was a quick interaction, but it left me grinning.
Zander explained the location enough that I found it on my map, and we were off.
I didn’t have access to the green potion any longer and only three hours into the trip I began to be overwhelmed by the weight of the fatigue. Pushing onward and trusting in Ares to keep me on the saddle, I drifted into a half-asleep half-awake state of mind.
Odd dreams of blood and magic haunted my mind. I saw great legions of soldiers entering battle with the grim understanding that it would be their last. An entire city cried out as one, but their voices were silenced a moment later and I knew not why. I saw faces that I recognized being cut down, one by one, each time I was unable to prevent the senseless death and in some cases I was the cause of it. Then something in the waking world broke me from my half dreams.
“Is he sleeping already?” It was Ismene’s voice and suddenly I became aware that we weren’t moving any longer. Groggily I looked up and smiled at the four riders all stopped around me.
“A bit tired,” I said, unable to stop myself from yawning right at the end.
“That settles it,” Ismene said. “Let’s camp for the night and make the rest of the trip tomorrow. According to Zander we’ve made good time, so tomorrow’s ride won’t be nearly as long.”
I looked around, realizing that the sun had set, and darkness ruled over the night. We stood just off a wide well-kept road and not far off was a grove of trees with a clearing that would make a good place to camp, just on the other side. My dreams faded like they had the tendency to do, before I got to really go over them in any detail with a clear head. Not that my head was all that clear, I could still hear the call of sleep from four days of missed sleep.
Whatever that green potion or tonic had been, it seemed to only push the fatigue out and not actually dispel it.
“He ought to do the first watch, since he slept most of the way,” Zander said, gesturing at me.
Fran cut her eyes at him and immediately came to my defense. “Does he look like he’s in any condition to keep watch, stupid fool. I’ll keep watch.”
Ismene and Emory looked from Fran to Zander but said nothing. They were beginning to have the starts of a proper friendship with Zander, but they’d known me all their lives and I’m sure they’d have come to my defense if Fran hadn’t. Fran was no friend to Zander and her cold glare made clear to everyone her feelings on the matter.
I put a hand on Fran’s shoulder and stumbled into a half hug. My voice came out as a tired whisper, though I hadn’t meant to hide my words. “Thank you, Fran, wake me if you get tired I’m just a bit out of sorts,” I said. Though if she understood all of it, I’d be surprised, as it all kind of melded together.
The next several minutes I must have found my bedroll and laid inside of it, but to be completely honest I don’t remember a thing, instead I found myself waking from the light of the morning in what felt like seconds later. My body, being the wonderfully enhanced thing that it was, had all the sleep required to bring back my sharpness of mind.
Ismene sat around the fire while the rest of the party still snoozed away. I slipped out and quietly put my bedroll away, then sat beside her on a log, snuggled close for warmth. She accepted my warmth and put a hand around my back. My armor, the enchantment I had added to adjust temperature and keep clean finally kicking in, began to warm me against the cold. Ismene wore her simple leather armor, but I saw a new item hanging over her neck, a large ruby on a silver chain.
“New loot drop?” I asked in a hushed whispered.
She smiled and lifted it up off her chest to let the morning light glean off its surface. “Yeah,” she whispered back. “It has an impressive Constitution and Endurance attribute layout, plus you know, it’s pretty.”
I quietly laughed, and ended up sounding like a horse wheeze, which I cut off immediately and smiled instead. “Pretty helps,” I whispered, squeezing her tighter against me.
The four days had gone by so fast and furious for me that I had hardly any time to think on Ismene and Emory, but I was glad they were back. I had something I wanted to give them both and it seemed the perfect time to talk to Ismene about it while the others slept.
“This wont be as pretty,” I began, keeping my voice low. “But I’ve done it, well sort of, it wasn’t just me and it isn’t the best version of what it could be, mind you.” I stopped my rambling and pulled out the item, Inspecting it as I passed it over. I’d given it a name and it looked like it stuck.
Well-Crafted Essence Enhancing Band
Gem Slot: Fair Diamond of Essence Pulling
Fair Diamond of Essence Pulling: This gem has been enhanced to allow the collection and storage of essence. (Rate of Collection and Storage Untested)
Durability: 250/250
Rarity: Crafted
Weight: 8 Grams
Item Level: Unique, Level Required to Use: Unique, Crafted by: Regina Clockstein
I hadn’t added the well-crafted bit to the name I gave it, but Regina explained that is where the quality of crafted items was displayed, the exception being certain Masterwork items given ‘unique’ names because of magical attributes they have inherently.
Ismene’s eyes went wide as she Inspected the item. Her voice rose to about a whisper, but she quickly stopped herself and tried again. “You…you did it? You really did it!”
Her attempt at keeping her voice low wasn’t a complete success, but I smiled all the same.
“Put it on, I only have a limited amount right now and I don’t want to make anyone jealous,” I said. I’d already taken the liberty of putting one on myself, because well you know it makes sense that I should test it out as well. I planned for the next one to go to Emory, as he also had a freakishly low Core affinity, but I felt guilty already that I didn’t have one for Fran. Zander passed through my head, but I didn’t care so much about giving him one, he seemed to be collecting essence just fine without my help.
Ismene listened and lifted up her armor just above her leather gloves and put it on, buckling it into place. She put her sleeve back down and it hid it perfectly. We were actually doing it! With an extra ten percent or so she’d be right up there with everyone else in collecting essence, if not a small bit better.
Regina had promised not to sell the rights to the gem creation, but she warned that others who paid rights to use our base patent would figure out themselves how to apply it as gems and our patent wouldn’t likely protect that unless they followed our same methods, which she said seemed unlikely. Either way I told her to keep it close to her belt for now, but I did tell her that she could show my notes and failures to a gem Inscriptionist in her family once they arrived. It couldn’t hurt to have a professional who’d spent much more time give it a once over and see where things could be improved. On that same vein of thought I’d also left the massive Merlin Mana gem with her, hoping we might learn more from its super advanced rune work.
Just then Zander stirred, sitting up and looking around the campsite. Ismene smiled at him while I pretended to be interested in a tree at the edge of camp. I saw Zander return the smile and a part of me wondered how close those two were getting. Ismene was the type of person to befriend everyone, especially those who looked like they needed a friend, but I didn’t know how I felt about her and Zander getting so close. There was just something about the guy that I couldn’t bring myself to like.
Emory and Fran stirred next, bringing our morning into full swing. It took only a few minutes to get the bedrolls put away and the fire snuffed out. I held Emory back while everyone called forth their mounts and headed to the edge of the road. Without saying a word, I passed him the band and lifted my armor to show him where mine was hidden beneath my armor. He looked at me with a ‘what the heck is this’ look until finally Inspecting it.
“No way,” he said, his voice loud enough that Fran and Zander looked our way. Ismene was quick and drew their attention by asking a question that I couldn’t quite make out. Meanwhile, I shot a look at Emory that to told him to shut it, which he promptly did.
I had a bit more issue getting his band into place as his armor was much more rigid metal than Ismene’s or mine, but eventually he got it to slip just beneath his heavy gauntlets after buckling it into place. He smiled wide and slapped my arm a few more times than I felt was necessary before giving me two big thumbs up.
He must have understood my intent well enough because he didn’t immediately start telling everyone what I’d given him, instead keeping his lips drawn into a line despite the smile that struggled to get free. Everyone summoned their mounts and I called for Ares to join us, she’d gone hunting I assumed and sure enough she arrived with feelings of fullness and vigor.
We reached the dungeon that, like Zander had mentioned, was marked on my map as simply ‘The Great Maze’, with a level range of question marks and a comment explaining that this was one of the few dungeons that would adjust the challenge for the party, though it did warn that you should be at least level 10 otherwise you could be overwhelmed while the dungeon determined what level was best to challenge you.
As we moved through the crowd to find the dungeon registrar, I wondered what the upper level of challenges this dungeon could provide. If it was so flexible and had been around for a while, my father had likely challenged it. We found the right person, who turned out to be an attractive female with brown wavy hair and pretty blue eyes. She wore the usual Adventurer’s Guild tabard over ornate armor and when her eyes ran over Zander she perked up.
“Cousin Zander! Your father is finally letting you challenge dungeons?” She asked, beaming at our healer with a beautiful smile.
“Morgan Delfrea, why are you working here?” Zander asked, he seemed almost offended by her presence and her smile faded.
“Still have a way with words, eh Zan?” She asked back, ignoring his question. “Little Zan get a group of servants to run him through some dungeons?” It was her turn to give off an offended snooty presence and she did it well.
Some need to defend myself and my friends boiled up in me and I spoke up. “I’m Lord Caldor Miles and these are our party members, each one worth here on their own accord and not by the command of anyone,” I said, stepping forward and putting myself a hair closer than Zander.
Morgan didn’t seem impressed, instead she swiped away at one of those crystals until some bit of information was shown to her. She lifted her head, likely to ask to see my guild token, but I already had it out in front of me and she snatched it. Her demeanor changed.
“Sorry for the trouble, Lord Miles, as you have two members of nobility in your party I will be able to offer you priority access. There was a recent cancellation, if you are prepared, I can get you in now,” Morgan said, looking me in the eyes but avoiding Zander’s.
I wondered what that crystal said about me that put her on edge as she was likely nobility too if she was Zander’s cousin, but I just nodded, and she told us to enter when ready.
Zander cut his eyes in her direction as he passed, and I saw her do the same even going as far as sticking her tongue out. Whatever the history between them, they were acting childish at best.
We entered into the Dungeon’s waiting room, drank our fill from the basin and applied our usual round of buffs and defensive spells. My arcane armor had been adjusted in the last week to better fit over my newest design of armor, and I admired the translucent blue sheen of it. When we were all prepared, Emory took the first step in, followed by Fran and myself, then Zander and Ismene in the back.
We’d determined we’d use this formation throughout this dungeon, despite Zander’s complaints that he would function better on the front lines. I would act as an in between of range and close up, with Fran assisting Emory in controlling and burning down enemies health from close up, with Ismene taking out things from afar and Zander beside her ready to heal or engage stragglers as necessary. I got a pleasant surprise when Ismene told me her Wolf, Roger, would be usable inside of the dungeon since he was considered part of her class build. I didn’t argue with her, instead telling her to keep him working the sides to funnel enemies in front of Emory and Fran.
As prepared as we were, I was not expecting to be mid battle the moment we entered. A half dozen goblins swung rusty daggers and swords at Emory as he struggled to keep from being surrounded. The battle was on, Fran and I rushed forward swords at the ready.
CHAPTER 50
THE GREAT MAZE PART 2
The goblins fell easily once we’d all made it through, but the pack of orcs that came next presented a bit more of a challenge. We’d been deposited right in the middle of an open area that had twenty-foot-tall walls encircling us. The ground was loose gravel and with each new wave of things to kill, an opening appeared in the wall, like stones shifting into each other, to reveal a passage that closed a moment after the combatants entered.
We fought goblins, orcs, humans, a pack of wolves, three huge bears, and our next threat were half elf half horse looking people called ‘Gentari Centaurs’, four of them galloped in, two with spears and the other two wielding bows. A quick Inspect revealed that this new threat was the toughest yet, each of them level 24.
