Chapter 14

Skulduggery

Once the group had returned to the Delver’s Guild, Pella left Devon with a healer and stormed off. The healer couldn’t do much about the shoulder wound which had already been sealed up with the healing potion, but they were able to recover the damage he had taken from the [Ghost Witches].

Janus awkwardly stood by with Dario while the healer worked. He wasn’t really sure if he should say anything.

“I made a mistake.” Said Dario. “We will meet again a week from now.”

“And if Pella doesn’t come back?” Janus asked.

And if I don’t come back?

“We’ll figure out what to do if that happens.” Dario responded.

Janus glanced at Devon once more before deciding to head home.

-

Mana exhaustion through [Mana Burn] was an entirely different beast. Janus had only used 30 or so mana over his limit, but it was regenerating incredibly slowly. He knew it could take all night before he reached zero mana again.

Even through the exhaustion, though, he was happy to see his father was home.

“Janus! You’re back. I was starting to get a little worried.” His dad said. “You got some new clothes?”

“Oh right. Dario got them for me. Extra protection.” Janus had completely forgotten about the new robes he was wearing.

“Well, you know what I think about all of that.” Janus’ father sighed.

They had a conversation a week or so back when his dad had some time off. He hadn’t really been in the loop about what Janus had been doing. It wasn’t a fun talk, but his father accepted that Janus could pursue whatever he wanted.

“Well my classes got… canceled for a week.” Janus said.

“Really! That’s great news. I have a few days off. We can spend some time together.” His father replied.

Janus was happy to hear it. Since his father had started working on the rail line, they had barely seen each other.

His father already had some plans for the day. A family friend had recently slaughtered a pig and had some choice cuts. They headed out together to pick them up. Afterwards, they talked about the rail line construction and Janus’ classes. Janus was careful to not bring up the dungeon.

After a few hours, the food was done.

Janus stabbed a piece of smoked pork belly, greedily shoving it into his mouth.

“So, level 21. You’ll be passing me soon.” His dad said.

“You were never all that interested in the System anyway, dad. At least it kept you alive. I heard that before the System most people died at 80.” Janus said after a hearty swallow.

“Yeah. That’s one way of looking at it.” His father replied. He seemed to look off into the distance.

Janus knew his dad didn’t like to talk about the earlier days and didn’t dig any deeper.

They continued to eat and chat until Janus finally succumbed to the day’s activities. He headed to bed with a goodnight.

The next few days were uneventful, but restful. He whiled away the time with his father, taking walks through the station, visiting restaurants, and grocery shopping.

It was a well-needed rest, but Janus’ dad had to return to work. Janus himself was itching to test his new capabilities. He had contained himself while he was with his father and didn’t even look at the new skill evolutions the System had granted him. But it was time to get down to business.

He sat at the desk in his room, pen in hand. Opening his journal, he willed for the evolved skill descriptions to appear in his mind’s eye.

[Spell Weaving]

Cost: 1 Mana per second

Cooldown: None

Description: You have mastered manipulating your mana and the surrounding ambient mana. You have a more intuitive understanding of spell craft and can more easily create new spells.

Bonus Stats: 20 Int and 20 Wis plus 1 Int and 1 Wis per level

[Power Enhancement]

Cost: 20 Mana

Cooldown: 5 Seconds

Description: You have learned to use ambient mana to increase the power of physical and magical attacks, either for yourself or for an ally. For the next 10 seconds, the first physical or magical attack your target makes will deal [50%] increased physical damage.

Bonus Stats: 20 Int and 20 Str plus 1 Int and 1 Str per level

The [Spell Weaving] skill was a bit ambiguous, but the [Pow. Enhancement] was an obvious upgrade.

I might even be able to use [Pow. Enhancement] on myself. My mana marbles could be even more effective.

He accepted the skill evolutions and checked his status.

Status Name Janus Alamy Class Enhancer Level 21 Guild None Life 458 Max Life 458 Mana 654 Max Mana 654 Stamina 507 Max Stam 507 Stat Total Base Class Skill Item Strength 43 21 0 22 0 Endurance 37 21 0 16 0 Dexterity 21 21 0 0 0 Intelligence 106 21 42 43 0 Wisdom 86 21 21 39 5 Skill Level Bonus Bravery 3 5 Wis / Lvl Writing 8 1 Wis / 5 Lvl Sprinting 7 1 End / 5 Lvl Spell Weaving 1 20 Int/Wis + 1 Int, 1 Wis / Lvl Pow. Enhancement 2 20 Int/Str + 1 Int, 1 Str / Lvl Mana Reinforcement 15 1 End / Lvl Mana Burn 10 1 Wis / 5 Lvl Empty --- --- Empty --- --- Empty --- ---

The difference in stats wasn’t that significant. He would have to test out [Spell Weaving]. The revealing light spell appeared in his upturned palm. It had taken almost no conscious effort to form the spell.

After all the trouble I had to go through using this spell before, this almost feels like cheating.

He began compressing mana into a point and was amazed at how much easier it was. He could handle more than twice the compression as he could when using [Mana Manipulation].

And it’s only level 1. I need to test out my mana marbles and the replica arrow point.

Janus hurried over to the Delver’s Guild. He nearly cackled when he could simultaneously sustain 5 different replica arrow point arrays. He stopped himself when he noted a few delver’s watching him.

Well let’s give them a show.

He began compressing mana and formed a shell over it with [Mana Reinforcement]. He snatched the resulting marble from the air and cast [Pow. Enhancement] on himself. The whole process had nearly wiped out half of his mana, but he was still suppressing a grin.

It was a risk to be on the platform when the explosion went off, so Janus stepped back. After a moment of deliberation, he stepped back even further.

He threw the marble, and in a perfect arc, it landed neatly in the center of the platform. As it hit the ground, Janus released the compressed mana.

He felt the shock wave before he could hear it. Even from nearly 10 meters away, it caused him to stumble. An instant after the shock wave, a massive whoosh reached his ears. But none of that compared the the blue flare of the explosion itself. The afterimage was seared into Janus’ eyes.

Once his ears stopped ringing, he could hear people speaking from behind him.

“-uck was that.”

“Stars. That skill is crazy”

“Imagine that going off in a tunnel, damn.”

Janus turned to see his previous spectators talking amongst themselves. The attention was a little overwhelming and he quickly made an escape.

-

Arriving at home, Janus rushed upstairs and finalized some thoughts in his notebook. He had ideas about directing the blast of the explosion with a stronger shell of reinforced mana.

The noise of his runescribe vibrating shook him from his thoughts. He reached over and read the message.

Yo, Janus! I’ve been hearing some crazy shit about you. We have a job you would be a big help on. Good pay. 5 silver eagles. Meet us in the backwash.

After the message was a crudely drawn map with directions. Janus didn’t really want to get involved with the Jacks or any other gang for that matter, but it would be a great opportunity to test out his new abilities.

Surely it couldn’t hurt to show up and find out exactly what the job was? Fao wasn’t lying. 5 silver eagles was very good pay.

-

Janus had copied the map from his runescribe to his journal, but it was barely helping. The Backwash was already a chaotic maze and the map didn’t feature enough landmarks to help out in the slightest. The message hadn’t told Janus that he needed to arrive at any specific time, though, so he continued to search.

After nearly an hour of frustration he stumbled across a rectangular hole dug into the cavern wall. Something had been crudely drawn in chalk above the entrance. On close inspection, it appeared to be a jack of spades.

They don’t even have a door… Isn’t this supposed to be a casino?

Janus stepped into the corridor and found it surprisingly long. He could see the other end nearly 30 meters away.

After a few moments he had reached the other end of the corridor.

“Ey, who’s this dude.” Said a man with neon green mohawk. He was wearing a jacket with a jack of spades emblazoned across the back.

“I’m, uh, here for a job. Fao sent me a message last night.” Janus responded.

“Oh, you’re the [Enhancer] kid. Fao’s been talking about you for weeks.”

“Really?” Janus said. “Is this place supposed to be a casino?”

The room was bare bones. There was some furniture carved out of stone, a counter, and a doorway to another room.

“Moving company, too.” The man in the jacket said. “My name’s Hal.”

“Janus.”

“Well, nice to meet you kid. Fao is in the back” Hal pointed a thumb at the doorway sitting behind the counter.

Janus made his way across the room and through the doorway.

“Janus! I thought I heard you out there. Ya got my message then. Good.” Fao was in his usual good spirits.

“I wanted to hear more about this job.”

“Woah, woah. That can wait. Level 21! Stars be damned, kid. What are they feedin’ you?”

“It’s that training I mentioned the last time you saw me.”

“Sure, kid. I’ve never seen a jump like that training or no training. Hell, it just means you’re even better for this job.” Fao said.

“Yeah, about that. What do you want me to do?”

“We got some juice on another gang. They found a dungeon and have been using it to beef their guys up. We were wondering about their growth for a while. Even thought about just telling the delver’s guild once we heard about the dungeon, but the gang started pushing into our territory. Now it’s about sending a message.” Fao explained.

“I don’t want to, you know, fight other people.” Janus said.

“No man! That’s not what this job is. We know where the dungeon they found is. We sneak in, kill the boss, sneak out, and we’re off scot-free.”

“And if we’re caught?”

Fao seemed almost indignant at the thought of discovery. “We get the fuck outta there! Don’t worry about it, we got a guy. He’ll keep us nice and discreet. You’re there to pump us up when we reach the boss. We gotta get in and out quick. The faster we take out the boss, the faster we get out.”

Janus wasn’t sure about the entire thing. The way Fao explained it made it sound far too easy. Surely there would be someone keeping an eye on the dungeon? Regardless, after the last dungeon, Janus wasn’t sure he wanted to step into a new one any time soon.

“What level is the dungeon?” Janus asked.

“Between 15 and 20, the guys we’ve been dealing with were clearing it out before they had even reached level 20.”

“Alright. I’m in.”

-

Including Janus, the group was only six people strong. Fao insisted that they needed a smaller group for their [Illusionist]s skills to conceal them all.

He soon discovered there was another reason they wanted him for this job. Their route to the dungeon went through the delver tunnels and none of them new the combination to open the seals.

Janus sighed and touched the runes in the proper order to open the entrance.

“Right on!” exclaimed someone from the group.

“Quiet, dumbass. Keep it down.” Another scolded.

The [Illusionist] had concealed them as they went through. It was strange to look at the others. Janus could barely make them out as the light seemed to just bend around them. It was disconcerting.

They dropped the illusion once everyone was in the tunnel. Fao led the way, checking a small piece of parchment every so often.

“We’re getting closer. You gotta hide us again Harry. We’re goin’ in the dungeon from a second entrance. Take the first right up ahead. Once we’re inside, follow my voice. We can’t risk droppin’ the illusion.” Fao explained.