Chapter 5: Web of Lies

Durabo logged in and the first thing he did was feel a great sense of relief, he wasn’t in the bed back at the library. The second thing he did was check himself to see if he was alright, he was and he looked around to ensure he stayed that way.

He was surrounded by the brown glowing light of Earth mana. That wasn’t too surprising, the fact he could see a slight tinge of the same color with a slightly different light coming from the floor was.

He had been able to see the mana of his own spells type and density for a while now, but when he thought about it he hadn’t seen anything from his surroundings before now. After a moment he realized what he was seeing, the glow of natural mana. He would have to study it further at another time, for now he had things to do. Such as reading the window crowding the left corner of his vision.

Due to actions taken or done you have gained a title, a skill, a stat, stat points and experience +2 Serenity

+5 Vitality

+20 Endurance

+5% Affinity: Fire

+1% Resistance: Fire

10% Experience

Title gained: Firecaller

Skill gained: Controlled Manifestation: Fire

Stat gained: Willpower

He quickly realized that what he had done proved to be very dangerous. Otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten so many rewards out of it. Well there would of course be rewards for nearly burning yourself alive.

‘Show title: Firecaller. Show stat: Willpower. Show skill: Controlled Manifestation: Fire (Active).’ He thought.

FirecallerYou have survived a trial by Fire few others have done. All things affiliated with the Element of Fire will treat you with respect.Effects:Increased friendliness from all things affiliated with fire.

10% Damage: Fire

5% Resistance: Fire

WillpowerRarity:RareType:MentalRank:Advanced StatDescription:Effects:Represents your determination and ability to resist

outside influences on your mental stateAble to resist Mind Magic and its effects.

?? Other effects will appear as you discover them.

Controlled Manifestation: Fire (Active):Rarity:RareRank:NoviceLevel:1 89%Description:Effects:You have mastered the art of manifesting Fire

and have therefore been granted an evolved form of the skill.Mana cost of Fire spells reduced by 75%.

Mana density of Fire spells increased by 300%.

8% Fire spell creation speed.

Durabo just stared at the windows for a bit. Unable to truly comprehend the information they provided. When he had collected his thoughts, he started contemplating the meaning of this windfall.

The title was indeed welcome and as long as he had fewer than five he wouldn’t have to unequip it, that it was so powerful surprised him though.

The second thing he truly noticed was the fact that willpower stat implied that he had been affected by Mind magic. The last was that skills clearly could evolve under the right conditions and if you get them to do so before they are mastered it will still result in you gaining all the benefits of mastering the previous skill. Quite handy, and a crucial bit of information.

With a thought he dissolved all the Earth mana around him and rose. He searched for a bit until he found the corpse of the one who almost killed him. Time to figure out what was going on, and he had a hunch he wouldn’t see what he saw yesterday. When he stood over the body it was quite evident that his hunch was right.

The skull of the odd Black Blood no longer looked like an orcs, that in and off itself wasn’t proof enough though, fire could easily warp bone. The fact that the remaining skin on the corpse wasn’t grey anymore was. Instead it looked remarkably like the skin of elves. To sum it up, he had fought an elf using Mind magic and killed him. Just as he thought this a new window appeared.

Quest: Cleanse the Tombs of your Ancestors have changed.

Quest: Discover the secrets beneath the city:Time Limit:NoneRank:RacialType:ResearchYou have discovered that there are elves that fight alongside the Black Bloods in the catacombs beneath the city. Find out what their purpose is.

After reading the two windows Durabo fell into deep thought. Clearly things were not as they appeared. But he had enough facts to deduce some of what was going on.

Fact one, the knowledge of the catacombs have been erased from the Adventures Guild at the very least.

Fact two, the odd Black Bloods are in truth elves disguised with Mind magic.

Fact three, they appeared as Black Bloods even after their death.

Conclusion? There are more than one user of Mind magic and one of them is more powerful than the one he had just killed. With a little genre savviness it’s not hard to guess that the boss is a user of Mind magic and his purpose is to build a large enough force underground to topple Vetas. As if to confirm his deductions and guesses a window appeared once more.

Quest: Discover the secrets beneath the city have changed.

Quest: The rot beneath the city:Time Limit:NoneRank:RacialType:EliminationYou have correctly deduced what is going on in the Catacombs. Now it is your duty to make sure it doesn’t happen. Eliminate the one behind the Black Bloods.

Pleased that he was correct, or at least correct enough to make the system change the quest he started planning how to do what it asked of him.

As he saw it this boss presented two problems. One was the danger of his magic when face to face. The second was the fact that every creature down here would probably be fanatically loyal to him, if not directly controlled by him.

To combat the first he would have to train his only way of resisting the magic, his willpower. He could do that by fighting the other elves down here using Mind magic.

Dealing with the other problem would be a whole other ballgame.

In order to ever have a chance of defeating the boss he would have to cut of the supply of creatures used to make loyal servants. It took him more than just a moment to realize he already had the perfect tool for that. Earth walls. He would simply have to make them last long enough so that he could cut off all entrances to this floor while he hunted down the creatures. Well they do say the best plans are the simple ones. Fight stuff and bar the doors are pretty basic tactics.

Since a big part of what would determine the outcome of this rested on how long his Earth walls lasted he would have to do some research and find a way to make them last long enough. He suspected that the density of the mana had more than a little to do with it, as it was the deterioration of it that made the spells collapse with time.

‘Show spell info: Medium Tall Earth Wall.”

A big leather bound tome materialized before him and pages fluttered in it until it found the correct place.

Grimoire: Medium Tall Earth Wall Mana cost: 200 MP.

Duration: 48 hours.

Durability: 500.

Looking at the spell his hopes seems to have been dashed rather thoroughly. Seeing as he was not high enough in Earth Manifestation to get a lot of extra density. Deciding that he shouldn’t give up just yet he raised four walls around himself and topped it off with another before sitting down in the lotus position.

Durabo had about a day online from he logged on before he needed to log off again. When he got the message he had five minutes until forced log off he had only managed to double the duration of his walls. Not ideal but if he sealed every cave as he went along and made sure to check them regularly it should be enough. As an upside the type of stone in them changed granting them almost four times the durability. Before logging off he went to the first cave sealed of the way up and did the same for the pathway to it before walling himself in once more, satisfied with the days work, if only barely.

*******

The lid of Sebastian’s capsule popped open and he got out of it. Without looking at his wall mounted clock he knew what the time was. Eight o’clock in the evening, time to head to the gym.

For the last three months or so he had been playing Gateway, he had made sure to exercise every day. There was a lot of good reasons for doing so, but the main reason for him was the fact that even though he loved to read and study he would likely go insane if he didn’t do something active at least once in awhile.

After the heavy intellectual stuff of his Nexus life he would immerse himself in every form and style that Chris threw at him. Reveling in the pure joy of using his body and living in the now. Well as much as he could life in the now, that whole don’t think at all part of eastern philosophy always went way over his head.

When he got to the gym, he was surprised to see a new guy talking to Chris. Not by the fact a new guy was talking to Chris, no by the fact that this new face wore the orange robe of Buddhist monks and were in his mid thirties. Not exactly the standard of people coming to the gym. As soon as he entered the monk looked up and studied him with piercing black eyes.

“Hey Frost, you’re right on time as usual.” Chris said when he saw the monk look up. “I would like you to meet my friend Xia.”

Sebastian walked over to the pair and offered his hand to the man. For some reason aware that this man was one you should treat with respect.

“A pleasure to meet you.” Sebastian said.

Xia studied his hand for moment then shook it with a gentle but firm pressure.

“Likewise.” Xia said, then looked at Chris.”You certain of this?”

Chris nodded somber unlike his usual boisterous self.

“Ok.” Xia said, then turned his piercing gaze on Sebastian yet again. “Would you give me the honor of a sparring match? Of course after your warm up.”

Took him but a split second to decide this could be more fun than he had in years. A boyish grin flickered on his face as he answered:

“Certainly, give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be ready.” Sebastian replied.

Fifteen minutes later Sebastian found himself facing Xia in the training ring. A deep bow traditional in almost all forms of stylized martial arts marked the beginning of their fight.

Three meters separated them while they studied each other. Xia took an odd pose like those in old kung fu movies while Sebastian simply spread his legs made sure he had a stable center of mass and relaxed muscles. Perhaps due to his having trained mostly Jiu Jitsu for most of his life he had a tendency to let people come to him, reacting instead of initiating.

With a flurry of quick jabs Xia went on the offensive. Sebastian started dodging, while parrying those he couldn’t. Never trying to use force against force instead trying to redirect. While he dodged he also waited for an opportunity to grapple or throw Xia. He saw his chance when for a moment Xia advanced by moving his legs closer together while delivering a straight punch. stepping inside Xia’s reach Sebastian grabbed the hand when it flew past him and moved in to do a shoulder throw. Except he found himself on the ground long before he ever got the chance to do more than that.

Chris called the fight then and there, clearly whatever the purpose of this had been it was now fulfilled.

“You were right to call me Chris.” Xia reached down and helped Sebastian rise.” I have an offer for you, Sebastian, would you like to learn kung fu?”

*******

The first thing Durabo did when he logged back in was to meditate and experiment until he had made the most expensive fireball he could, without making the casting time to different. Might as well draw full benefits from his recent windfall. Then he dismissed the walls surrounding him.

Now his exploration and extermination could proceed.

With the boss fight always on his mind Durabo moved through the different caves and tunnels killing everything in his path and closing all exits. He also mapped the extensive tunnel and cave system while doing so. The first few caves were a piece of cake, his new fireball spell was powerful enough to kill the orc like Bloods with one hit and he didn’t run into any more elves until he reached the fifth cave. The fifth cave had a fire mage and a contingent of about ten orcs. He quickly killed the orcs and found himself in his first true mage duel.

Now to understand the true meaning of mage duel you need to forget what you know of magic from before. Mages had no way to just dismiss spells or reflect them, at least not at the level Durabo and the elf was at. No instead they had to carefully use spells to counteract the spell of the other a tricky sort of rock-paper-scissors. Well that was the norm, Durabo just used discs of earth to parry the other ones fireballs and then shot him with his own since the mage hadn’t got any other spells and therefore couldn’t parry. Truthfully in Nexus the best mage hunters were warriors or fighters with high affinities since the get a lot of resistance from them. Mage on mage on the other hand was dangerous business. Durabo on the other hand had already moved past the typical mages of Nexus by using all Elements as much as possible.

For a little over fourteen days Durabo hunted orcs and novice mages in the big cave system, getting a massive amount of skill experience from them alongside leveling. It came at a price though, for more than once he got burned or otherwise hurt in duels with other mages. Apparently the first one he fought had been an idiot that only used one spell presumably relying on the orcs to keep opponents away from him. The other mages were not nearly as stupid, they used a lot of different shapes and types of their preferred Element thereby making fighting them a good deal more thrilling and dangerous.

Yet the closest calls always were at the hands of Mind mages. If not for his intuition passive and the willpower stat he would never have survived. After a while though his willpower had reached a level that enabled him to shrug of the Mind magic without really noticing he did so, a good sign in his books.

Another good sign was the fact that the only way up from this place was the way he had come, at least so far. Stupid beyond belief yet true. Well the boss might have a secondary way out at his place, but he had no way to handle that, so he would just have to hope it wasn’t so.

Just as he was about to conclude that his current growth had slowed considerably a new level to the dungeon appeared. Once more he moved deeper into the bowels of the earth, and what he found there was quite surprising. Beneath the level of the natural caves where enormous round tunnels with offshoots of slightly smaller tunnels leading to big caves. The surprise was the fact that the tunnels and caves seemed to have been made by a burrowing creature, yet what creature had the size of a modern tunnel boring machine?

As if that wasn’t enough to make the level a surprise the creatures moving around in the tunnel lead by Elves were no joke. The only thing showing they used to be Black Bloods was their skin color. Well the color of the little amount of skin they still showed. Massive beast three to four meters tall with iron hard soot grey scales covering most of their body and wickedly sharp claws the size of small swords. Yup they were a bitch to handle for Durabo. Not only by themselves but also because they usually had a mage or two to direct them.

After a week down in those tunnels fighting those level thirty plus variant Black Bloods and mages he discovered where all the Bloods came from. Believe it or not they came from eggs. Grey eggs, in a pool of brackish water in one of the bigger caves he discovered. Guarded by no less than five of the huge monsters. What ticked Durabo off though was the fact that it proved his strategy until now had only been marginally successful if at all.

As a result he had to spend another week hunting down all the spawn pools making sure that there wasn’t a single egg left in them.

Durabo found himself a month after having begun exploring the second floor looking at a map. No matter how he looked at it, there could only be one conclusion. The chamber at the end of this tunnel would be the boss chamber. Nowhere else he could hide and there were no more Black Bloods left. He had resigned himself to not knowing where the eggs came from after he had killed all the Bloods without encountering anything like a broodmother.

Durabo could feel himself getting more and more tense as he walked down the tunnel towards the boss. Although the boss hadn’t been a genius strategist as evidenced by the fact he had been able to do this sole, he had still anticipated this and made the Bloods procreate in the lowest levels while keeping the most evolved of them as guards.

So when Durabo stepped in to the huge round cave that was the boss’ room, he felt relief when he only saw one elf sitting on a big throne. That was until the boss rose and he saw the sword at his side. You remember the order of the Blackened Earth? Those guys had specific swords at their sides and the boss carried one of those blades. At the sight he concluded that this might just be a tad more difficult than he had predicted.

The boss didn’t do or say anything and yet Durabo’s perception of him shifted in an instant. Once more he found himself confronted by the terror of standing in deaths presence. Yet with a thought he sought shelter in the serene state of mind he had cultivated by using his serenity stat. Without even checking if the boss realized he had resisted, he fired of a fireball and followed it up with one after another hoping to overwhelm the boss before he got anywhere near him. Problem was that the boss dodged the fireballs like they were thrown by a child. The boss then drew his sword.

“Impressive, it’s been some time since anybody resisted my will.” He swung the sword a single time as if to assure himself he still could. “ I will simply have to use cold steel to kill you, young mage.”

Apparently not one for long monologues the boss then dashed at Durabo while swinging his sword. Durabo finished the spell he had been preparing while the swordsman talked before he got to him though. His biggest Earth wall appeared in front of the boss and he ran straight into it.

Durabo ran towards the tunnels. This would require guerrilla tactics if he was to succeed. As he ran he set up walls in the boss’ path and then ran down a smaller tunnel to another cave here he quickly cast as many walls as he could making the cave into something akin to a maze. He then hid himself in the on one of the branches, waiting for his mana to return. He had almost depleted it with his walls.

Twenty minutes later when his mana had regenerated and the boss still hadn’t entered his trap he realized something. He would have to fight him to stop all of this and the boss knew it. So the boss felt no need to walk into this obvious death trap. Damn.

Options, one retreat and come back prepared or with back up. Two take up the fight and see what happens, the price of death might be high but he could handle it. In the end he would wind up back at the library either way, so why not go out with a bang?

With a thought all the walls disappeared as if they had never existed and Durabo found himself looking at the boss standing at the entrance sword in hand. So his guess was true after all.

“So you have decided to face me after all, brave.” The boss said as he walked towards the middle of the room. “My name is Elandriel and I will have my revenge for your interference.”

The boss was no more than five meters from him and as he saw his face it froze Durabo solid. Raven haired and blue eyed Eladriel was, with fine delicate features. Heat like nothing he had felt before flashed through his mind, and it took all his not insignificant willpower to keep from going berserk. A deep breath and his mind fled into the cold, calm and collected space of serenity.

As if he had all the time in the world Durabo considered his knowledge of this boss. He was either of the black order or an initiate. He was skilled at mind magic. He was a spellsword. The conclusion was a simple one, in order to hit him he would have to be ready to take his hits at least in part. The bright part? He could not have that much health not strength judging by the power of his mind magic.

Durabo took the initiative by firing yet another fireball and when Elandriel dodged it he moved in close, almost close enough to smell his breath. If magic wasn’t feasible he would have to see how hand-to-hand worked out. Dodging Elandriel’s downwards sword swing he grabbed the arm and threw him. Elandriel had not seen that coming.

Following up on that success was tempting but he judged it to hazardous. In a blink Elandriel was on his feet again, his eyes storming and his whole presence wrathful. Calmly Durabo shot him with a fireball only a meter away from him, Elandriel had no time to dodge and took it straight in the face, yet still kept coming.

Durabo dodged, and then did a low sweeping kick tripping up the still blinded Elandriel. He fired off another fireball disarming Elandriel. Or trying to it didn’t work. Calmly Durabo fired powerful after powerful fireballs at Elandriel's head, until he no longer moved. For a boss that shouldn’t even be that strong without magic he certainly proved difficult.

When he turned over the corpse of Elandriel a big grey book lay beneath him. Durabo bend to pick it up and when his fingers touched the grey embossed leather a window appeared before him.

Class change possible:Would you like to convert to the adept combat class Mindwalker?YesNo

Durabo thought about it, but honestly any class advancement that meant giving up flexibility would not do, and from the fight earlier it was quite obvious that Elandriel only had access to Mind magic and basic swordsmanship.

‘No.’

Pain seared a fiery path through his mind and he blacked out.

When he came too there was a few windows in the upper left corner of his view.

Grimoire of Elandriel the Mindwalker has been absorbed by your skill Grimoire.

A quick search through the recesses of Durabo’s mind quickly revealed what had happened. He now had a wealth of information pertaining to the workings of Mind magic. Too bad there wasn’t a single part of it explaining the sigils for it.

Due to actions taken or done you have gained a skill, skill experience, stat points and Experience+1 Serenity

+2 Intelligence

+1 Wisdom

5 Willpower

16% Experience Running

4% Experience Controlled Manifestation: Fire

29% Experience Manifestation: Earth

7% Fire Mastery

9% Earth Mastery

13% Chant Mastery

15% Sigil Mastery

247% Experience

Skill gained: Mastery: Hand To Hand (Passive)

Quest: The rot beneath the city completeReport to your guild for rewards and recognition.

Durabo studied the face of Elandriel for a moment. The he started what most would find to be the best part. Looting. Until now whenever Durabo found stuff worth looting in living quarters and the like he would only take food supplies leaving the rest behind so as not to weigh him down. Since all adversaries would perish at his hands anyway there was no reason to fear that the loot would disappear.

From Elandriel he took his spell glove on his left hand, his tooled leather belt and scabbard, along with his hand-and-a-half sword of Blackened Earth. When he removed the spell glove though he discovered a small tattoo on his inner wrist. A stylized spider web. Durabo marked that little detail thinking it might become relevant in the future.

It took him four days to get all the way back to the library. Mostly because he was weighed down and delayed by all the loot he collected on the way. Not all the caves where breeding grounds after all, some of them were barracks for the elves. Yet he still had to leave most of the junk loot behind, one of the weaknesses of a mage was after all their lack of carrying ability.

As he went up the stairs from the basement in the library he was deep within the serene state of mind. Not willing to give an inch to the feelings that lurked just beneath the surface. To his luck, it was still opening hours so as he entered the first floor he was greeted by Silendra. Well luck might not be the right word.

Her delicate and refined face framed by hair dark as night, didn’t have her usual crooked smile. Her blue eyes didn’t hold the same mischievous glint as they used to. No she knew what was up, confirming his suspicions. With an effort of will he pushed down the lurking chaos and said with a neutral voice:

“You used me.” No hint of blame, or anger. Simple calm words.

A shadow of pain entered her eyes as she answered.

“It was necessary.” Deep sadness lay within those words as she spoke them, almost breaking his calm.

She had from day one been able to affect him like few others. Might be because she was a Wraith, a Mind sorcerer, he wasn’t certain that was the reason though. He needed to get away before she had a chance to affect his emotions anymore, he wasn’t sure he could go through with this otherwise.

“Goodbye Silendra.” He said while looking her deep in the eyes, giving her the chance to know the storm within him.

“Dura…”

He turned around and left. Not interested in her excuses and explanations. Actions will always speak louder than words. Her actions had said plenty.

Status Window:

Spoiler : Status WindowName:DuraboGender:MaleLevel:34Experience:57%Job:NoneRace:High ElfCombat Class:MageSupport Class:NoneTitles:Firecaller, Novice Eislonien MageExpendable Stats:HP:1190HP/s:9,1MP:12289MP/s:6,05Stamina:1190STM/s:18,2Satiety:30kSAT/s:-1Basic StatsStatBaseBonusTotalAgility:6345108Charisma:43043Endurance:63063Intelligence:35365418Strength:25025Vitality:1190119Wisdom:10120121Advanced Stats:Concentration:168Serenity:26Willpower:74Affinities:Air:25%Earth:26%Fire:30%Ice:1%Light:25%Lightning:1%Mind:31%Nature:1%Water:25%Resistances:Air:5%Earth:5%Fire:11%Light:5%Mind:5%Water:5%

Skill Window:

Spoiler : Skill ListCombat Skills:Skill nameSkill RankSkill LvlSkill EXPControlled Manifestation: Fire (Active):Novice64%Grimoire (Passive/Active):Adept723%Intuition (Passive):Novice1089%Mana Feed (Passive):Adept1226%Manifestation: Air (Active):Adept649%Manifestation: Earth (Active):Adept987%Manifestation: Light (Active):Adept135%Manifestation: Water (Active):Adept714%Mastery: Air Spells (Passive):Adept647%Mastery: Chants (Passive):Adept1010%Mastery: Earth Spells (Passive):Adept891%Mastery: Fire Spells (Passive):Adept127%Mastery: Hand To Hand (Passive):Novice157%Mastery: Light Spells (passive):Novice1563%Mastery: Magic Staffs (Passive):Novice87%Mastery: Sigils (Passive):Adept106%Mastery: Wands (Passive):Novice129%Mastery: Water Spells (Passive):Adept1119%Running (Passive):Novice1847%Third Eye (Active):Adept962%Support Skills:Skill nameSkill RankSkill LvlSkill EXPCartography (Passive):Novice1594%Charm (Passive):Novice64%Language: Rune Tongue (Passive):Adept262%Meditation (Passive):Adept699%Subconscious Note-taking (Passive):N/AN/AN/AWriting (Passive):Novice1836%

Hey there fellow penguins of our great empire :)

So here is a new chapter for you guys. Hope that my boss battle wasn't to boring since he was basically a wolf without teeth at the point where Durabo got to him.

I have been contemplating whether I should organize all the different mastery skills in the same way that i have organized the manifestations. What do you guys think?

Btw if you guys feel like doing a review or rating I would be much obliged ;)

As always hope you enjoyed my story and comment if you feel like it :)