BT - Book 1 - Chapter 84

“Are you sure this is a level forty dungeon?” Jo asked, staring at the red hot metal of the dead molten automaton as it slowly cooled into solidity.  “That was an awfully easy fight.”

“Did you see the amount of experience we got?” Drekt responded snorting as he checked his cleaver for divots.  “That monster was at least level thirty five.  I could barely hold it back long enough for the Luoca to finish it off.  I suspect that this battle would have gone much differently if we didn’t have access to a stain on reality that can literally slice matter apart with its wings.”

“I can’t believe I’m supporting these idiots,” Sarah rolled her eyes, “but stop whining and drop something on the floor Jo.”

She made a silly face at her sister as she pulled out a strip of gauze, meant for wrapping wounds if Micah were otherwise occupied and tore a length off of it.  Jo shrugged, dropping it.

The wisp of white cloth barely made it out of her hand before it yellowed, curling up on itself a half second before it burst into flames.  Jo looked up, confused.

“It’s really hot in here,” Sarah rolled her eyes.  “I don’t know where our tiny leader learned how to enchant, but these rings are the real deal.  I suspect that each one of them could sell for at least ten attunement.”

“Probably more like thirty,” Micah shrugged.  “They can handle a fair amount more heat than you’ve already seen including short bursts from fire affinity spells.  I honestly don’t think anything with a fire affinity under tier four will be able to scratch us unless you just stand still while they cast it on you.”

“Where in the name of the Sixteen did you find eight sacrifices to power something like this without me noticing,” Sarah squinted at him.  “Honestly.”

“The same place I found the daemon,” he responded pithily, “in another timeline from some very powerful and secretive people.  In short, yes I have found a partial workaround to sacrifices in enchantments.  I would not suggest asking too many questions about the specifics as those are the kind of answers that end with all of us dead or enslaved.  Specifically, you dead, and me enslaved.”

“Not asking a question about the process,” Drekt glanced at the Louca as it began eating the chunks of metal that used to to be an automaton, “but is that line of questioning more or less dangerous than this abomination of an ally you’ve summoned to aid us?”

“Even if the Church of Luxos frowns on its summoning,” Micah tried to ignore the creature as it ripped a still molten chunk of mana-laden flesh from the dead monster, “I made sure to follow all of the rules in summoning it.  I am an adherent of the Church of Mursa and I have her permission and I made a point of not sacrificing any sapients.”

“But what about the laws of nature?” Drekt raised an eyebrow.  “Honestly Micah, look at that blight and tell me that it exists for any purpose other than for us to kill it for Ankros’ glory.”

“Maybe someday we’ll be strong enough not to need the Luoca’s help,” Micah rolled his eyes, walking out of the cramped room and onto a narrow basalt walkway that jutted out into a lake of molten rock, “but for now I’d suggest that beggars can’t be choosers.”

“Possibly,” Drekt, followed him, eyes narrowing at the ripples in the magma despite the still air of the cavern, “but I can’t help but think that wrong is wrong Micah.  I mean, didn’t you accomplish your goals last time only to be forced into a restart due to summoning daemons?”

Micah just grunted, tuning the big man out as he kept his eyes on the glowing liquid rock surrounding the walkway.  Drekt had a point, but at the same time he was like broken clockwork, repeating the same argument over and over again after Micah had explained his reasoning.  The entire bit of amateur theater was beginning to grow a bit stale.

“I just feel like you’re literally repeating the same mistakes Micah,”  the huge man continued behind him.  “Now, I don’t mean to preach Micah, but the Gods gave us our blessings for a reason.  I can’t help but feel like ignoring the lessons your Goddess is trying to teach you runs counter to the very purpose of the blessings themselves-”

“Oh Gods!” Jo shouted, her words overlapping with Trevor as Micah’s brother simply shrieked in distress.

Micah barely had time to whip around and see the lava skimmer as the dark orange manta ray sailed through the air, slamming into Drekt, bouncing off of the big man’s breastplate but knocking him into the magma.

He lunged for his companion, Micah’s outstretched arm barely missing Drekt’s as he fell off of the walkway, landing on the magma several paces below.  Almost immediately, the viscous liquid began to deform under him, not exactly swallowing him up but beginning the slow process of sucking the warrior under as if it were quick sand.

“Fuck!” Micah yelled, whipping around just in time to saw his spear, sonic enchantment buzzing, through the rubbery wing of another lava skimmer that launched itself out of the lake at him.  “Ravi, pull Trevor out.  He’s got about forty seconds until the ring gives out entirely.  Everyone else, watch out.  Even if they aren’t able to hurt you directly, knocking you into the lake is enough to kill you fairly quickly if we can’t pull you out.”

“I don’t know Micah,” Jo hopped from one foot to another, blades in hand, “I’m pretty sure that you’re the only one that can shrug something like that off.  Both Sarah and I are agility builds.  I think our best bet is to, you know, avoid getting hit.”

Telivern snorted its agreement as it stepped between Jo and Sarah, ready to gore any skimmer foolish enough to throw itself at the dimly glowing stag.

As if in response, the Luoca gleefully threw itself into the magma, disappearing under the surface with a splash.  Sarah glanced at him in horror.

“What,” Micah tried to keep the embarrassment from his voice as he scanned the bubbling rock for another attacker.  “The Luoca will flush the skimmers out, and given its natural resistances and regeneration, this is barely even enough to damage it.  Honestly?  I”m pretty sure it’s just having fun.”

“That doesn’t make it better Micah!” Trevor shouted from the rear of the column, bracing his spear against the walkway and swiveling the point to impale the manta-like wings of another skimmer as it leapt from the lake at him.

Behind him, Ravi dove toward Drekt, nabbing the back of his neck in her jaws before dragging him partially out of the magma.  Frantically, Drekt began pulling himself out of the liquid rock, the ring of heat resistance flashing a warning red at him as it struggled to deal with the overload he’d subjected it to.

The skimmer slammed into Trevor’s spear, almost jolting the weapon out of his hand, just as Micah picked off another of the creatures with a pressure spear, the spell punching through its torso.

Trevor fell backward, barely maintaining his grip on the walkway as the bulk of the lava skimmer that he’d stabbed slammed into him.  Telivern galloped past Jo and Sarah, even as the two girls threw themselves on the ground to avoid another skimmer hurling itself through the air, and slammed its razor sharp antlers into the normally magma bound monster flopping on the walkway next to Trevor.

Then, there was silence, filled only by the ragged breathing of the party and Ravi’s almost casual wingbeats as she circled them.  Drekt pulled himself up into a sitting position.

“What in the hells was that Micah?” he asked desperately, clutching his massive sword close to his chest.  “I thought you said that we could handle this dungeon.  Five minutes later I was knee deep in molten rock that should have killed me.”

“But it didn’t,” Micah flinched backward as the Luoca burst from the magma, a lava skimmer in its human mouth.

It flicked its head upwards, launching the monster up into the air, slicing the creature in half as it fell to the basalt walkway.  A moment later, to the disgust of the entire party, the Luoca lunged downward, ripping great bites out of the flopping rubbery corpse at its clicking insect feet.

Telivern snorted, turning away from the daemon as Trevor paled.  Micah himself winced and tried to focus on Drekt as the Luoca crunched and snapped its way through its prey’s body.

“This isn’t like the other dungeons,” Micah avoided disgust on Sarah’s face as she stared over his shoulder at the daemon.  “Up until now, we’ve been grossly overpowered and waltzed our way through every fight.  Our battles were only a matter of avoiding fatal errors while waiting for inevitable victory.”

“That is no longer the case,” Micah sighed.  “All of you check your statuses.  You’ve likely gained at least half a level in the past two battles-”

“Or a whole level,” Jo whistled appreciatively.

“There’s a reason for that,” he continued, nodding at Jo as her eyes glazed while she scrolled through her status.  “The enemies here are roughly twice our level.  The ones that try to overpower us with fire abilities will be roughly the same level as us, but the earth affinity opponents will be stronger and perhaps even faster than us.”

“The upcoming fights will be about defending and distracting,”  Micah winced as a grotesque popping and smacking sound came from behind him as the Luoca enjoyed the lava skimmer with gusto.  “Trevor and I have the most training holding monsters at bay while Sarah does her best at crowd control and Jo looks for targets of opportunity.  Our primary goal will be to stay alive long enough for the Luoca to finish the fights for us.”

“From time to time,” Micah nodded at Drekt as the big man slowly got to his feet, heat resistance ring still glowing, “I will need Drekt to step into my position to let me cast spells.  Unfortunately he is a bit… cavalier in combat.  Even with his new armor he tends to take more hits than he should.”

“But that’s what’s so-” Trevor began only for Micah to silence him with a glare.

“I swear by each and every one of the Sixteen,” he stared his blushing brother down, “if that is an innuendo, I will force you to run calisthenics until you cough blood and then I will heal you so you can do it again.”

Trevor looked down, unable to meet Micah’s eyes.

“Regardless,” Micah continued, shaking his head.  “I will do my best to keep the rest of the party enchanted with haste and regeneration.  Periodically, I will be using one of the new higher level spells I picked up at the Baron’s estate.  They’re mana intensive and slow to cast, but I suspect that they’ll rival the Luoca in damage output.”

“Now,” he summoned the Ageless Folio with a flourish, quickly opening it to his notes on previous runs through the Cavern of Rust.  “The next chamber will be a pair of pseudo phoenixes guarding an altar hidden behind a false wall.   As long as the rest of us keep them occupied Jo should be able to find the altar and disable it, dismissing the monsters.”

“After that,” Micah turned a page in the book, “there will be a trap corridor that I will traverse and disable using Foresight and potentially Temporal Stutter.  The next-”

“Why can’t I do the trap corridor?”  Jo asked with a frown.  “I’m the team’s scout.”

“You’re level ten with a basic class,” Micah prepared himself for an eruption, “Even if I’m not specialized in getting past this sort of trap, between my magic, hit points, experience with literally these traps, and agility I am the best choice to handle it.”

“Really?” She put a hand on her hip, cocking an eyebrow in the magma’s ruby light.  “You can’t just brag about how high your agility is without a number.  I might be level 10, but I’m already at fourteen.”

“twenty-five,” Micah replied with a sigh.  “Look, it isn’t just about the number-”

“Holy shit,” Drekt exhaled, staring at Micah.  “No need to be modest, Micah.  Knowing how to use an attribute is often more important than the absolute size of the stat but, uh.  That’s a pretty huge number.”

“Look,” he shook his head.  “I’m trying to integrate the rest of you into the party so everyone can contribute, and in a couple of months, you all will be able to.  Just trust me when I say that we should be relying on me for any solo work at the moment.”

“Now,” he fought the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.  “Are there any other questions before I finish detailing how we’re going to triumph over this death pit?”

Trevor’s hand slowly went up.

“Yes, brother dearest,” Micah crossed his arms, staring at his nervous young man once more.  “What has distracted you this time?”

“Is,” Trevor pointed past him at the Luoca as the creature slurped noisily at a hole it’d punched into the half eaten lava skimmer’s spine.  “Is it supposed to be doing that?”