Chapter 018: Digging an Anchor

The biggest advantage of Aura Manipulation in close quarters combat was that Aura Armour numbed damages even if the attack broke it. It worked like invisible shield, stopping potentially deadly stabs and slashes. Only impact remained, but it was spread throughout the entire surface of aura armour.

Because of that rather than being impaled or sliced apart you were ‘only' beaten up. But if the damage accumulated, then you felt it everywhere. And when your Armour was overwhelmed, you could still receive direct damage. Even then you still could use aura for damage control - you could use it to at least slightly suppress bleeding and pain, even without appropriate skills (Vaera’s spells were much stronger though).

Because of that, unless a fight went terrible, you were just beaten up and in pain. It was an unspoken HP bar for warriors, a mortal version of daemon life energy. There was an official HP bar, but it was used to measure how much lifeforce your body had. The more of it, the more Life, Death or Lust Magic hexes you could receive before falling down. This?

When your bones broke or you couldn’t move your limbs, you were out. Soon your enemy would hack you into pieces. Unless your friends saved your ass. Pure sorcerers were much more squishy, but we could evolve into the living equivalent of an artillery cannon. Aura manipulators could break us into pieces if we let them get into melee, but piercing through our magic shields (or their equivalents from other magic schools) didn’t cause physical damage to us. We had spells and hexes (like my Tentacle Push) to push melee fighters back. At higher levels we get some 360 degree defences like Aura Armour. Besides with a familiar your manapool and mana regeneration grew really fast. Leaving warriors and fighting without someone to tank for you was still a terrible idea.

It was a pretty sound system. Made sense. Avoided the typical threat of overpowered magic users by balancing them properly.

It also made recovering from fights easier.

A Blackwood Knight was a tough combatant. It gave our warriors a solid beating. A single punch of him would shatter the bones of a person without aura reinforcement. Despite this it thankfully broke no bones, and the worst wound was the stab in the leg Lena got. But since Vaera reacted immediately with his Suppress Bleeding, she didn‘t even lose a lot of blood.

Of course the aftermath of Rip and Tear and Rend Evil hit Leria badly. There was no rule against stacking Berserk spells, hexes and techniques atop each other - DFI refused to limit players arbitrally to balance the game. As long as there was no justification for a limit in biology or lore, you could do it.

Here, biology was a limit. Few berserk magics stacked atop each other could end up in a heart attack. Two of them weren‘t a problem for a healthy person like Leria, which is why I used Rend Evil. But when you stacked without your heart going on strike (or exploding, in rare cases) and survived the fight, weakness following the fade of the berserk state was stacked as well.

That‘s what kicked Leria out. Weakness stacked to the point of losing consciousness. No permanent damage though. In fact, not even a temporary one, she was just going to wake up with a nasty hangover. And a bad case of muscle pain considering the beating she received in the fight.

“Well.” I said when I finished bandaging Lena‘s wound. “It went well.”

Vaera only sighed loudly while stabbing the fallen Knight with aether collector’s spike.

“I’m not sure if I‘d use the word ‘well’ to describe it, master.” Lena commented.

“Weren’t you the one that complained about lack of enemies to fight?” I laughed seeing the look she gave me.

Suddenly there was a loud groan. Oh. Looks like Leria came back to senses.

“What... the hell happened?” She tried to rise but suddenly grabbed her head. “And how much did I drink?!”

Heh.

***

We spent three whole days hunting Blackwood Knights. The breaks between fights were much longer than when we fought Hexcasters and other lower level creatures though.

Leria told me what she thought about me stacking Rend Evil atop Rip and Tear. I haven‘t gotten spanked with her sword (again), but I could see in her face she was considering it. She knew me well enough to guess I knew what would happen and went through with it for the lulz. I like doing things for the lulz sometimes.

She also decided to be more conservative with Rip and Tear. To use it only when it was really needed. She demoted it to the same category where I hid my Overdrain skill.

When I leveled up, the leap in the size of my manapool was... intense. 35%. There was a reason no competent sorcerer was without a familiar. Level 10, huh. By the end of the third day of our hunting I got level 11.

Nice. That was nice. I would visit the guild in Ambryxis and get more hexes. I already had a list of them written in my mind. Especially 360 degree defense. That was essential. Eventually we would run into beings that were strong and smart enough to prioritize taking out magicians. Forget old mmorpg’s aggro drawing tactics, there were creatures around that would ignore our warriors and start the battle by chopping off my head.

***

“Finally!" Simea almost jumped up from her sleeping bag. “I haven‘t slept that well for days!”

She received looks of unbelief from every single member of the group. Sleeping in the deeper parts of the Black Wood was hard. There was almost no ground to be speak off, only roots. Which meant uneven and hard terrain that our sleeping bags couldn‘t negate.

That all of us seemed to have nightmares about being lost in a never-ending forest while something dreadful followed us didn‘t help. It was pretty normal in anomalies.

“Impossible!” I exclaimed loudly. “I refuse to believe you can sleep well in this forest.” I came closer to her. “Hey, why is this ground so even? It feels like…”

Suddenly the ground gave up. I fell down into darkness, together with Simea.

I shouted. She as well. We hit the ground.

Ouch.

“Are you alright?!” Leria shouted. I looked up and saw her looking back at me from a... hole in the ceiling? It was maybe two meters above us.

“I’m fine. Simea?"

“Yes. What happened?”

“Good question.” I summoned Sunstone and made him use Purifying Light.

The color of the light seemed a little weird and unnerving, but it allowed us to see our surroundings. We were in a room. Looked like a storage. The walls looked... roman? They were even vases here and there.

“Don‘t go down.” I spoke. Simea gave me a WTF look. “There is an item called Anchor Paint in the equipment. Take it out. Then retreat to the edge of anomaly and plant it there. Use the Paint to mark a path. Arrows every twenty meters would be the best. ”

Geography in anomalies wasn‘t stable. Places drifted around because there was too much Dark seeping into Reality. But where the logic of the Light collapsed, logic of the Dark took over. The location might have drifted away, but if there was a line connecting it to the outside, it remained as well. It might have changed its route as well, but it remained. For some time.

“Why?" My decision surprised Leria.

“Because we are almost guaranteed to die in here.” I chuckled. “All three of my magical senses are screaming at me to run, you should feel it as well. And because that‘s the first time I heard about a dungeon in Black Woods. And I read a lot about this anomaly in Ambryxis.”

“So… " Simea responded. “Reconaissance by combat, hmm?” I smiled in response. The best type of reconaissance.

PRIMORDIAL NIGHTMARE

Type: Location Quest

Difficulty: Mithril V

You’ve discovered the long forgotten Third Anchoring Station. What secrets does it hold?

So… it’s the Third Anchoring Station. Doesn’t sound too great. Mithril V though… why we can’t get some nice, easy, Iron grade quests?! WHY. And the name of the quest was terrible as well.

Oh, well. At least we triggered a Location Quest. These things were rare.

She saw it as well. Looked at me and sighed loudly. She must be getting used to it as well.

***

The door opened easily. What awaited us on the other side was a large room, covered in darkness.

Good thing I remembered to borrow a torch from Leria. I carried it in one hand, with a staff in another. Wasn‘t the most comfy way, but I managed.

What… something stands in front of me?!

It looked like a stereotypical roman. He even wore a toga.

“The fuck…”

Nyrathzm Thrall

Category: Eldritch/Beyond

Type: Beast/Husk

Threat Grade: Iron IV

An ancient Kynevian infected with a seed of Nyrathzm before the darkness swallowed the place now known as Black Woods. Nothing remains of the person he once was.

He suddenly lunged towards me. Simea pushed me sideway and jumped at him, stabbing the side of his neck.

He answered by charging at her, using his bodymass to push her back.

I caught a good glimpse of his almost empty black eyes before my Destroyer Bolt hit him point blank. It ripped off his hand, making him stagger.

Suddenly his head exploded. Wh… inside was an uneven ball of darkness. Wait... it has an eye?!

Seed of Nyrathzm

Category: Eldritch/Beyond

Type: Daemon/Servile

Threat Grade: Iron V

Seed of Nyrathzm, an ancient being whose descent created Black Woods and is responsible for uncountable deaths throughout the millennia of the Woods’ existence.

It is but a child of Nyrathzm, left to incubate in a husk of a human, but forced to hatch earlier. While stillborn, it is still a danger.

The ball of blackness rose, making the headless body collapse. The eye was crimson red... and kept staring at us.

The hex it fired hit me hard. Death Magic. I staggered back as the hex kept devouring my lifeforce. I felt faint.

I rose my staff and cast a Destroyer Bolt.

It avoided it?!

Simea leaped at it, but it managed to a avoid her dagger as well. It retaliated by a black tentacle lash that emerged from it and hit Simea‘s hand. Despite the Aura Armour she covered herself in she shrieked.

The fuck is this thing?!

Actually… let’s try this. “LIFE DRAIN!”

It shook strongly, a significant part of its HP disappearing.

It‘s weak to Life Magic! “DRAINING CURSE!"

Seed retaliated with another Death Magic spell. This time I must have lost consciousness for a split second, landing on my knees. Shit, just how strong its magic is?!

“LIFE DRAIN!" Merely 33% of its HP left. Simea attacked it, hoping to draw its attention away from me.

It was too busy dodging and lashing at her to finish me. Good. “LIFE DRAIN!”

It shook for a few seconds. Agony. It collapsed into itself and disappeared right after.

Shit. That was tough. I lost 60% of my lifeforce and could barely stand.

“You ok?" Simea nodded.

“I lost 35% of HP. Damn lashes.” Yeah, they weren‘t as strong as the hexes it fired at me but with its agility it could easily jump around warriors (especially heavy ones like Leria or Lena) and lash them to death. Deadly tactic when you consider that Death Magic (and the rest of its family as well) weakened body. So each hit meant being slower and weaker… while Seed remained as fast as before.

Iron V? My ass. If I weren‘t a Life Magic user, that thing would’ve murdered us.

“I have an idea.” I regained my footing and glanced at Simea. “You have a technique called Silence, right? How does it work exactly?”

“It suppresses all noises in my vicinity. Why you ask?”

“Because I think the Thralls can’t see.” She looked surprised. She must have not noticed. “He leaped at me when I was dumb enough to speak. Sure, Seed has an eye, but I think that Thralls only navigate by hearing. And if it won‘t hear us, the Seed shouldn‘t hatch.” Probably.

“Sounds sensible. But... uhm…” She looked away. “You will have to be close for it to work. Really close."

“H... how close exactly?”

***

To the left of the room we left was a wide but collapsed passage I presumed once led to surface. On the opposite side of the entrance hall was another storage room.

We searched through contents of both but we found nothing interesting. Bunch of old rubbish. Considering the roman architecture, this place must have dated to times before Dawn War. Thousands years old, created before current Gods defeated their predecessors and reshaped Imperium of Kynevia in their preferred image.

The only reason it still stood was that entropy didn‘t work as it should in anomalies. They conserved places, things, even creatures. Not perfectly, though.

Exactly opposite entrance were another large doors. Reinforced by metal and locked. The lock was magical, and the enchantment seemed to still have power. Great

How exactly am I supposed to open this? I’m not a magician. Just a sorcerer. Ugh. If it’s enchanted you can‘t even try to break it forcefully. Not only pretty much every daemon in the area would feel it… in the worse case scenario they could retaliate. To be honest, even average magicians might not be of use, considering how ancient the spell was.

“Maybe one of the other tunnels have a means of opening it?” Simea interrupted my thoughts.

“We could as well search them.”

***

First corridor we entered was, of course, collapsed.

Darkness and silence surrounding us kept getting on my nerves. Ugh. Alright, time to try the last corridor.

Merely two meters into it and I could see a shape of a man in front of us. Simea hugged me from behind. I could feel something rather soft on my back.

Really close. Uuugh.

We walked forward, clinging to the wall and in safe distance from the Thrall.

It was a legionnaire. In lamellar armor and with a rectangular shield. The most legionnaire legionnaire I ever saw. His eyes were pitch black, and he stood there, not moving an inch.

As expected, it didn‘t react to us when we made no sound. It stood there, like it did for last few thousand years probably.

Intersection of corridors. We could go front or right. Choose right... only to discover another hollow legionnaire standing in the middle of corridor, right before another collapse.

This place took a beating. Most of it collapsed. Probably when Nyrathzm took over and began laying eggs in people, but it could also happen later. No way to discern. Not in anomaly.

We returned to the intersection and continued forward.

We found a room. Once it must have been a big one, but most of it collapsed. The rest was filled with rubbish. Remains of a living room of the garrison, perhaps? I could discern remains of tables and chairs.

Dead end. Uh.

“So what, is that all?" Simea said impatiently. I wasn‘t sure of that in the dim light but she looked a little red. Night elves, it seemed, could get aroused even by so little physical contact. I feel sorry for her.

“Perhaps... not.” There was a large boulder on the edge of the collapse. Beneath it were remains of a legionnaire it crushed. All flesh rotted long ago. Without being partially demonified by Seeds there was nothing to stop the natural processes that anomaly could only slow down.

In its skeleton hand was a small aquila shaped crystal. With my Sense Magic I could feel magic similar to the one surrounding the locked door.

I took it. He won‘t need it anymore.

“Let’s return.”

***

Rather than open with a lound screeching, the doors slid into walls without making a noise, opening a way into a large hall.

This time there was lighting. Just enough to see an opposite wall, covered with intricate magical symbols woven into geometrical shapes. Anchors for spells. Powerful. Way beyond me both in strength and ability to decrypt their meaning.

There was also an altar in front, and sets of columns by the wall.

And a shitload of Thralls. Jesus. There are like... thirty of them?!

They stood everywhere. Legionnaires. People in togas. Some that looked like simple workers. All of them reduced to husks in which children of an eldritch abomination dwelled.

If we wake them, we are so dead.

I could feel Simea hugging me again.

Yeah, well, we came here expecting to die, so we could as well keep going forward.

We carefully navigated through the room, trying to keep our distance from the Thralls. After a few minutes of it we were close to altar.

Strange. There was a person sitting on the floor with its back on the altar. Wore a legionnaire outfit, but lacked a weapon and shield. Seemed dead but certainly not rotten. Weird.

I decided to come closer and investigate.

“Oh shit.” I said after I saw the body pitch black hair and weird line on its face. “That‘s an automaton!” Badly damaged, something ripped off its left arm. Lower jaw and left eye were missing as well. There was a hole left by something piercing through its lamellar armour and chest. As far as I could see it went through it.

“Automaton?”

“Well... it’s complicated. Essentially a sapient machine. Treated as part sapient species, part warmachine and part plot device.” I chuckled. “The thing is, it might not be beyond saving." I didn‘t have to look back to know what sort of face she did. “They are much tougher than squishy fleshbags like us. Besides their main processing unit is safely hidden in their chests, beneath a thick internal armour. The stab seems to have missed it." But how to take it out?! We can‘t just carry it out.” I thought for a moment. “Wait, I have an idea, it‘s stupid but it might work."

I emptied Equipment. I placed bottles with my pathetic-grade potions and low value ingredients I gathered on the way here.

“What are you…” Simea began. She went silent after I touched the damaged automata and it disappeared. “You are kidding me.”

“If it’s stupid, but it works, it isn‘t stupid.“ I chuckled. “Come on, there’s one corridor left unchecked in this room." I snapped a photo of the magic symbols on the wall before we left.

***

Another room. No, after a second thought it must have been another intersection of corridors. There was a faint light coming from behind us, enough to discern that tunnels going left and right both collapsed. There was only a single way remaining - the one forward.

Door. Closed, but it didn’t look like it was closed by magic. Uh.

Simea kept clinging. There were Thralls in this small hall as well. Three. Two legionnaires and one toga-wearing guy with a golden aquila amulet. Shit. I’d have stolen it, but that would wake him up and three Seed of Nyrathzm would murder us. And even if we somehow triumphed, it would probably wake up thirty more in the main room.

I kept pretending I didn‘t see how flustered Simea was. She didn‘t bring this up, and I wasn‘t going to do this.

“So... we are going in.” I commented, with my hand on a doorknob." You are ready?"

“Yes.”

I opened them. Once again there was no noise. Damn, how is that even poss…

... on the other side of the door I saw a terrible thing.

A massive amalgamation of corpses, not too different from Gore Altar but many times greater, covered most of the room.

Jesus, what the hell...

Suddenly a movement. Something lied on the flesh floor and reacted to us opening the door.

A woman. Tall. Naked, with only a blackwood staff with a distorted ball of flesh on its upper end.

Then her belly split open and I saw many eyes of Seeds of Nyrathzm looking at me.

The Forsaken

Unique

Category: Eldritch/Beyond

Type: Beast/Servile

Threat Grade: Silver V

An ancient sorceress who abandoned humanity to become a willing vessel for children of Nyrathzm. Now it is an unholy union between a woman and a monster, that exists only to watch after the children of her beloved.

OH SHI…

First hex of Death Magic she cast at me left me with merely 5% of my HP remaining. I fell on the ground. Conscious, even if barely, with no strength to move a finger. I barely heard or felt anything.

Few seconds later another hex finished me of. Ugh. If that wasn’t a suicide mission from the get go, I’d genuinely feel bad about it.

YOU DIED!

Cause of death was heart failure due to lack of lifeforce to sustain it..

RESURRECT

They stopped making bad jokes on death screen? Finally a change for the better.