Chapter 14 - Tempers, Tempers

The 5 stooges had registered as a party. They were ready, and after reaching the entrance of the underground dungeon, they prepared to enter it.

It was a sort of big hole in the ground, which made it at least a lvl 200 instance…. or so had told them Kifirin, the resident bookworm. It was part of the miscellaneous knowledge she had gained of the game that didn’t rate for a knowledge sheet.

Underground dungeons were level 200 minimum (caves were the exception to the rule and could be whatever).

……

Bluebell went first, but was very careful. He couldn’t see the ground after Ankara sent a huge fireball down there. In fact, he just saw the light getting dimmer as it went farther… so he had no idea of the pit’s depths.

He had also sent a minor ‘sound wave’ by using a telekinetic subskill that vibrated air molecules at a very high frequency, but got nothing back. It meant that the ground was farthest than his telekinesis AoE. Not reassuring… Buffed as he was, his range was 30 meters, which would already make for a deadly drop.

So yeah… he went in cautiously.

He also made an educated guess for the benefit of the party: “You guys probably already know it but…. it’s pretty deep. Maybe extremly so. We have no way of knowing so don’t just jump in”

As he began to drop, he used telekinesis yet again to agitate the molecules of the air under him in a researched way, rearranging, compressing and cooling them as he saw fit. The density of the air went up, which slowed down his fall. A lot.

Mightily liking this new application of molecular telekinesis, he registered it as a subskill named ‘Density rule’, making sure he could select the parameters before and during use, which would allow him to customize his altering of the air density.

Wanna slow foes…. Immobilize them? Easy as pie. Make them choke on air? Simple. Make a sort of barrier? A bit more complicated because he would have to add adapted space variables to the calculation, but overall achievable.

His mind full of equations and possible uses of this new subskill, he smiled broadly. Regardless of its ending, this trip would not be a waste. He had already gained much from it.

Hmm? The mathematics? Well, he was obviously doing them all in the middle of said drop.

Talk about a cool cucumber. A SMART cucumber. He could also have teleported in loops but it wouldn’t have been challenging then, would it?

……

Lennart hopped in without a care in the world. Well, he used slow first, but he knew it wasn’t gonna help that much thanks to his first-hand experience at the papal mass. He didn’t care though, he knew he wouldn’t die from it, his defense and vitality were outta the lock.

It would still hurt though.

But damn, it was so FUN! The thrill of jumping into the unknown, aware of the fact that he’d crash at the end…. Wonderful! Adrenaline, here he came! (Pain too, but well...)

…..

Ankara dubiously watched the paladin commit virtual suicide. For the life of her she couldn’t understand why he had declined her help. *Whatever… guys!*

She activated flight and rushed down. She didn’t know how far was the ground, so she had decided to be quick. She didn’t want to run out of mana halfway after all… no time for sightseeing.

She also created a mana flare on the way. It’d be too bad if she went splat at the very end because she had blindly rushed headlong into the impenetrable ground.

…..

Vyx drank some ‘Elixir #23’. It was a consumable so he had mixed it using mana, which had been painstakingly long because of its brewing process. However, the rewards were great and he had made quite a lot of it.

The beverage allowed the one who drank it to totally ignore the first damage received after ingestion, be it the slap of a vexed maiden, or the flame of a dragon. Obviously it couldn’t be used too much unless one wanted to suffer from an excruciatingly painful poisoned status, but it could be useful in tight spots.

This was one such occasion. Hopefully he wouldn’t get scratched by something on the way, because then he would be pretty much fucked. Then again, he worked well under pressure…

Indeed, the whiz still had many aces up his sleeves.

He just wanted to test his last creation…

….

Kifirin painfully watched Vyx gulp down a glowing white substance that had a gooey consistency. She wondered how it was supposed to save his ass…. and it seemed disgusting.

Looking down at the hell-hole, she did the leap of faith, and then blinked down. Over and over again, she blinked down. Obviously, there was a 5 seconds cooldown between each leap during which she used the air element to slow her fall.

It was a great exercise of concentration, precisely alternating spells like this on a set timing. If she miscalculated by even a hundredth of a second, she might die.

It was fun though. She loved the feeling of her stomach dropping again and again after each blink when gravity claimed her.

--------xxx----------

At the entrance of the burial maze, a blue-haired guy could be seen approaching from above. It may have been dark, but he felt the ground coming thanks to his permanent sound-waves releases. Prepared for the imminent landing, he altered the variables of ‘Density rule’ yet again. YET AGAIN, yes, because the fall had lasted more or less 5 minutes… so he had started playing around with his new toy when he got bored.

The dungeon was frighteningly deep.

Blue’s ever-changing speed went from fast to super slow in the matter of seconds, and as his feet gently touched the ground, he smoothed his hairs back and tied them down. They had been obstructing his field of vision, flowing around as they were.

The walls where then illuminated as the torches they held all lighted up at the same time. Spooky.

Not long after, a free-falling nutcase whooped loudly as he finally saw his final destination. The adrenaline high was glorious… he was approaching the ground extremly fast.

Then he crashed with a metallic crunch. The armor equipped above the jumpsuit had shattered into smithereens, but he didn’t seem to be in that bad a state. He should have looked like a wet stain on the ground after all, so what were a few broken bones? Internal bleedings too, but at this point it was hardly worth mentioning.

It looked painful.

He was soon followed by a screeching witch flying at a terrifying speed. She was so fast that she simply couldn’t stop on time and had to correct her route in-extremis. Making a sharp-angle riiiiight above the welcoming ground, she unwillingly maintained the now horizontal course and was uncontrollably hurled into a nearby tunnel, missing the wall by a short distance.

That’s when she left the guy’s sight. She hadn’t stopped screaming for dear life and the volume went down as she got farther away. The passageway then closed behind her.

Blue gaped.

The fallen Lennart guffawed, almost spitting out his health potion in the process.

A bit later, Vyx violently collided into the ground in a messy tangle of limbs. He then elegantly got up and dusted himself as if nothing had happened, looking perfectly fine. Even his clothes were spotless, so the dusting has been quite superfluous.

In the middle of trying to sit up, Lennart gave him the stink eye. His broken body wasn’t really collaborating, so it looked quite pitiful.

Right then, Kifirin appeared on the ground. She had blinked. When she raised an eyebrow in questioning of Ankara not being at point B even though she left point A before her, Blue said they'd lost her.

“What do you mean lost her? She can’t have died can she? For a witch of her caliber it should have been a piece of cake. I don’t even see her body…” Kifirin wasn’t in the mood for jokes

“No, he meant lost her as in lost her. We LOST her. As we talk, she’s probably wandering the maze“. Len specified the facts before resetting his right shoulder.

CRUNCH. The sound was so gross it was awesome

“Unless she met a wall before slowing down. Or maybe a trap. You said this was a maze, right?” Vyx added his thoughts to the matter, totally ignoring Len’s antics.

“Guys…. We can still see her in the party so she’s still alive. Whispers are deactivated though, so we’ll need luck to find her” Blue showed them the party menu.

Her HP bar was full. Parties were new for most of them so they didn’t know this option existed. “Hopefully she won’t move and wait for us”

Kifirin sighted “….. I see. Len? I can see that you only have one half of HP left. Rather than waste health potions, would you mind letting me heal you?”

“I don’t mind, but as far as I can tell, rogues can’t heal. They can’t blink either now that I think about it.”

“I’m not a rogue. I’m a RED rogue”. Grinning, Kifirin used the voice of healing. 30 seconds later he was all new.

As her comrades watched her with barely-hidden interest, she said “Aww c’mon we all have our little ‘secrets’ don’t we? I have, and I know you do. My battle-sense tells me so. Did you know that most people only rate between 2 and 5? Well you guys are at 8 and 9. It’s telltale”

Bluebell clapped his hands in understanding “So that’s what you meant when you said we were all monsters! I see… By the way, can you attack while singing?”

“While healing? Nope. Anything to add before we go?” (smooth! She said nothing about buffing)

“Yup. Does anybody have mapping skills? Trap dismantling? Cooking? Repair? Identification? We kinda forgot to talk about this before going down. We don’t even have real food supplies…. I’m also curious on how we’ll be getting back out” Vyx was raising good points

“By dying? The tent is our respawn point after all” Len waggled his eyebrows

Blue made a face “Well if you’ll excuse me, I’d rather not die. My judge hates me because I’m prettier than her”

“Prettier? Umm… You’re cute but I wouldn’t say girly either… how?” Kifirin looked surprised

“… I don’t like saying this about maidens… but this one’s behavior’s does not qualify her as one, so I’ll be truthful: She looks like a bulldog.” Pretty-boy looked at his feet in shame. He still had talked badly about a woman.

“… I see. Doesn’t she hate pretty much everyone then?” Len felt like laughing. His judge was a nice guy, considering the fact that he was a judge.

Blue looked sideway “She does…. But somehow I’m a special case”

Kifirin grinned “Maybe she’s just hot for you?”

“OY CHILDREN!” Vyx called them all to order “The subject at hands is support skills. And food. I have late intermediate repair and identification by the way, so this part is covered. Now, answer the question”

“Ay! I have trap dismantling and cooking. Cooking is a variant, no levels. Supplies are no problem cuz I can pretty much make food out of anything… even rock. Trap is beginner level 1 though… I haven’t had time to level it up yet, so please be patient with me. I’m sure it’ll be fun evading all those booby traps together” Said the rogue in a sing-song voice

The paladin winked at her. He loved surprises, even nasty ones.

The rest of the party stayed silent

“Nothing else? Kay then. No mapping… we’ll have to wing it” Vyx didn’t like ‘winging it’

They all shook their heads but then Blue raised a hand

“I don’t have the mapping skill but I can use a sound-wave as a sonar to get a general idea of our surroundings”

They all agreed on him leading the way.

“By the way what made you guys say that it’s a labyrinth? I’m curious” Kifirin had looked around but had seen nothing telltale of a maze. Sure, there were a few entrances but it didn’t obviously mean labyrinth.

“Well, when I was miserably recovering on the ground, I looked at the ceiling. It’s pretty detailed” Len pointed at the vault and they all looked up

Tomb of the Hammer of the witchesThis place imprisons the twisted soul of Heimlich Kramer. Forever lost within the maze of bitterness, he is a cursed being that shall never be allowed to rejoin the sacred of Spirit.

This monstrous individual was cursed ages ago by a witch of Dathum, and forced into our magical plane of Situm where he went berserk. Fueled by the loathing of everything we represent, the hammer of witches gained dark powers and focused his hatred on us. He used his darkness to destroy the Wiccan race, our race. Once dead, we extinguished our souls to curse his spirit into remaining trapped here even after death, forever denied the right of reincarnation.

Adventurer, please go back from whence you came, because if you enter, you will have to deal with his reviling dead cultists before being killed by his malignant realm-bound influence.

There is no treasure, nothing to gain.

Leave.

--- The Wiccan elders

………………….

Ankara was lost, lost and scared. In fact, she was pretty much on the verge of terror.

The place was a labyrinth. She normally liked labyrinths, however she knew that the deadly traps would make this one hard to enjoy. That wasn’t the problem though…. It just meant she was lost and couldn’t just blindly try to find her way.

Her predicament had to do with something else. The moment she lost control of her flight and entered said maze, she felt extremly bad. Somehow, she felt sad and bitter, but at the same time her spook-sensor was blaring. Terror, that’s what swamped her mind.

She felt this incredible need to just run away screaming… screaming and never stopping.

Frozen into place by an uncontrollable fear for what she felt as ages, she was broken out of the terrified stupor by something falling unto her head.

It was a box.

A board game.

The cover said it was the King’s game.

Somehow, when she touched it, the fright disappeared…. It was wonderful to be free of it. Bewitched by the box’s soothing effects, she opened it. However, it was a disappointment. It was empty inside.

A red flash originating from the ‘emptiness’ blinded her.

Ding! Ding!

When she was finally able to see again (how nostalgic), the box had disappeared but the fright hadn’t come back. She had new notification windows.

System Notice: the King’s gameYou have opened the box, and as such have registered you and your party for the King’s game.

First Round: Complete the quest

QUEST: The regret of the Wiccans

Ages ago, the Wiccan elders sacrificed their souls to curse the being whom destroyed them all. It was an act of revenge, an act of blind hatred … even though its blind hatred itself that pushed their enemy to murder them.

The children of spirit thus created a loop of hatred that far from punishing the ghost of their killer, has been empowering it for thousands of years. Its malign influence has already spread through the Ibulin Jungle by vector of the Maleficarum forest, a materialization of his loathing.

Once Kramer frees himself from the labyrinth of bitterness, the false indestructible forest will become what it has always been…. an extension of his power.

You are the last of the wiccans, so please, shoulder the burden and destroy Heimlich Kramer for good

- Kill Heimlich Kramer the spirit

- Prevent his respawn by burning his source of power to the ground: The maleficarum forest.

Once it is done, the malignant spirit will be destroyed for good and the grounds that once hosted the maleficarum forest will be cleansed.

*Huh? The forest is indestructible unless we kill the spirit? Well shit… Parish could have told us! Wait…. There is an ancient spirit that slaughtered my race roaming around the place? Is it the reason I almost pissed myself from fright? No way…. Not strange status effects again…. I don’t wanna… what’s wrong with this game? Ah…. I need to contact the party and update them…. Bah I’ll wait for them, they’ll find me one way or another. Whispers are off anyway*

And so she waited.

Any cultist that approached her was roasted.

She wasn’t in the mood for niceties.

……………

Kifirin looked at the wire. It was an obvious trap. Too obvious. She felt that wasn’t all there was to it, but for the life of her, she couldn’t find part II of the setup. The floor tiles seemed normal. There were no arrow holes on the walls, and the ceiling looked clear. As a last ditch effort, she turned to sonar-man.

“Blue? Can you use your sonar-thingy to detect traps? There’s something here but the wire’s a lure. I just know it”

“Sure. I never did it but it cannot hurt to try. Lemme see….. hmm there’s nothing here. At least I found nothing” he shrugged. The results were not convincing…. He hadn’t even detected what kind of trap the trip-wire was supposed to trigger.

“Great let’s go then”, Len impatiently strode over the wire and walked straight ahead. Who cared for the trap? They’d deal with it their own way if there was one.

The maker paled “Umm guys I’m not sure that’s a good ide--“

CLICK!

One of the tile Lennart stepped on activated something, and the loud clicking sound it made shut Vyx up. It also froze the 4 stooges on the spot. Why was the click so loud? Was it a psychological attack before the big bad? If it was, it had worked well.

RUUUUUUUUUMBLE!

The ceiling opened and a giant boulder was released right behind our guys as the ground tilted. It was time to run.

“Lennaaaaaaaaaaaart!” Vyx was livid.

“Don’t get your panties into a twist!” huffed the paladin “It was way too advanced to even detect, so activating it was the only way!”

“I agree, we saw it coming, but couldn’t even tell what or where. We’d have soon gone forward regardless of the lack of information. ” Kifirin wasn’t even breaking a sweat

“I don’t like running” Blue just seemed bored.

“Yeah? Well I wouldn’t have minded a bit of time to prepare. You just went forward without consulting anybody. Aaaah just forget it…. “Vyx relented, but he still gave a dressing down to the reckless paladin

The target of his ire shrugged “I must admit I wasn’t expecting this. I thought I’d end up looking like a pincushion or something”

As the group went on with the useless chatter, Blue reminded them of the context “When are we gonna stop running? Talking is fine but I’d rather we took care of the problem at hands. Shake it or I will.”

“Hmm…. The running is kinda rekindling memories I’d rather forget so…. Yeah. Who wants to take care of it?”

As everybody wanted a chance at terminating the boulder, they finally decided to draw straws. The winner was unexpected, and made Vyx take on a sour face.

“Yeeeeeesh I won! Its ass is MINE!” ecstatically roared Lennart

“Yeah? You’re a paladin. What are you gonna do? Stop it? Haha funny… good luck with that” Sour-face taunted him. He was a sore looser like that.

“As a matter of fact, I will. My brethren are sissies when compared to me. Open your eyes widely…. And watch!”

Rapidly equipping a great shield, the tank did a one eighty towards the boulder, stopped running and took on a firm stance. Before the flabbergasted faces of his comrades, he cheekily winked.

The boulder violently rammed into the shield, and Len’s greaves made a screeching sound as they tore groves into the ground. Sparks were flying and ears were bleeding, but after four meter of skidding backward, Lennart finally stopped abusing the durability of his footwear.

The enormous boulder was still.

“So? How’s that for a show?” Keeping the pose, he proudly looked at his friends.

Kifirin and Blue clapped their hands. It had been entertaining.

The sore loser however? He felt like gloating “No bad. But tell me, are you gonna stay that way for the reminder of your short life? It has stopped, I give it to you, and Kudos for it….. but as soon as you move it’ll probably go rolling down again. I remind you that we’re on inclined grounds”

Len appeared discomfited. He looked at the boulder and then at the ground. Once. Twice. “….. Ah. Does anybody has a wedge or something?”

“Hmm… lemme think. A wedge you said? Do I have a giant wedge on me right now? Good question. The answer would be NO!” Vyx was liking the feeling of teasing Lennart.

Blue went deep into calculations regarding the possible conversion of matter through telekinesis, which did not compute. Seeing his frustrated face, Kifirin decided to take the matter into her own hands and closed her eyes in concentration.

Red roots appeared out of nowhere and began weaving a great web around the boulder. Len was unceremoniously expulsed from the vicinity by the fast acting plants as they multiplied.

There was no pattern, just a mindless amount of roots clustering together. It was solely about holding back the weight and blocking the way.

She felt it working, but just in case, our heroine kept at it until she exhausted all of her unsealed mana.

What greeted her when she finished was a vision of horror. Yup.

Enormous pulsing webs of roots.

Enormous deep-red pulsing webs of roots.

Enormous deep-red pulsing webs of roots that had somehow eaten her moaning party

“….. Oops”

Vyx, Blue and Len were entangled in the creepy looking vines. At least she thought so. They were nowhere in sight but she could somehow make out a boot sticking out of the mass. The groaning was also telltale.

Munya? Were the roots moving? They shouldn’t be…

The mutant-moving-thingy sent a tentacle-root after her, but she dodged it in incredulity.

*The fuck? It’s alive? How? But…. Roots… monster? Why? What am I supposed to do? And why is it attacking me? I made it so that would make me its mom. Maybe it just wants a hug? …. Nay*

As tens of tentacles headed for her, she used her body to counter. Her armguards pushed the plants back. The intent hadn’t been to harm, but to grab, so she answered in kind by fending off the greedy appendages.

Said appendages went back to the main body after a few failed tries. They looked sad.

Like whipped dogs…. pitiful.

*Dayum. Is it because I used all my mana? Considering the amount used there aren’t that many roots…. And most are gigantic. If it wasn’t needed to immobilize the boulder I would blast it into oblivion. Or maybe not… the guys are in it. I have to retrieve them. How? I can’t blink with people, and I don’t think I can do so INTO … monsters*

She felt the headache coming. This was turning into a clusterfuck. Ankara was MIA and guys were in need of saving from mutant roots. Yay!

Was did the mutant want with the guys anyway? Their health wasn’t dropping …. Ah.

Their mana was.

The monster vibrated and began pounding its tentacles into the ground. It looked like it was having a fit.

Ding!

Systeme notice: A new creature has been given life!Because you poured an incredible amount of mana into a chaos release without having a precise idea enough of what you wanted to accomplish, Chaos itself has twisted the creation.

Greet Red-Vine ‘Onem’, the sole of his kind. Because his creator never meant for him to exist, the lonely being has decided to collect lifeforms. His hope is that his loved collection will one day fill the emptiness of his heart brought by the heartless rejection of its mother.

Onem is still a baby and can easily be influenced, please take responsibility and don’t let the cruel world trample its pure heart.

>> If you reestablish the parent-child bond, you will be connected to him as it was meant to be

Onem grows by feeding on mana and has the mitosis ability

Kifirin swallowed.

She had created a mutant named monster.

She had created a mutant named monster which confused possession with love

She had created a mutant named monster which confused possession with love because of her bad parenting.

It could also multiply at will.

*…. Well shit. That’s screwed up. Rejection? What rejection? I wasn’t gonna let an unknown hostile grab me! I was joking about the hug. How could I have known that it was REALLY a hug?*

Her baby! Her baby was lonely…. What kind of person was she to make her baby feel so sad?

“Hmm….. sweety? Mommy was surprised when you tried to grab her, so she stopped you but it was because she didn’t expect it. Expect you. Not because she didn’t like you. You are an unforeseen gift. A precious gift. Mommy doesn’t know you yet, but mommy is sure that with time we could come to love each other greatly. Mommy is sorry… forgive her”

The Vine stopped the mindless ground-hammering. Kif took it as having its attention.

“Onem sweety, that’s great. You need to hold in your temper when with people. Mommy doesn’t mind but society will hunt you if you can’t control yourself. Mommy will protect you always but you don’t want to make mommy sad, do you?”

A root gently slid around her waist. It was probably a sign of affection from the yearning baby, but it still made Kif ill-at-ease. Not because the appendage looked creepy, pulsing at it was. Nope. Past the first moment of surprise, she could have cared less about its appearance. In fact, it never registered as weird to her.

What displeased her was the fact that is was feeding on her mana. Bad manners! She couldn’t have her child showing such bad manners! How would it reflect on her?

*Or is it doing it because it likes my mana? I’m its mum…. so am I doing the equivalent of breast-feeding? Oh. My. Gosh. Mindblown…. I’m breast feeding…. Damn you, tales of fate! Damn you! I DUN WANNA BE A MUM AT 20! AND HE HAS NO DAD! HOW CRUEL ARE YOU??? NO DAD! Poor baby… I need to be there for him…. I can’t believe I hurt him so much…. Am I evil?*

Evening her shaking breathing, the single mom decided to go with the flow.

Stroking the appendage, she went on “Sweety, is mommy’s mana good?”

Onem had no vocal chords of any kind, but she could have sworn she heard purring. She also felt his satisfaction. Alright, he liked it.

“Well… Mommy is jealous. You’re also taking mana from your collection. Isn’t mommy enough? Sniff…. Mommy wanted to be the only one to provide for you.” She wondered if it would work. She couldn’t have Onem indefinitely feeding on her friends. And if she brought him outside it would be bad if he drained random passersby. Not that she truly cared about it but she guessed the witch-hunts would get old after a while.

Checking her party status window, she saw that the boyos’ MP had stopped dwindling.

Good. Onem’s roots were also hovering all round her, seemingly panicked. He looked guilty… he seemed scared of losing her love. Was it because she mock-cried?

Her baby was so cute… it made her all tingly inside. Grasping one of the hovering roots, she gently rubbed it against her cheek, showing him that she held no grudge.

*Hmm? Why can I feel his emotions? Is it because of the bond? It must have been reestablished*

“Now, could you spit out mommy’s friends? They belonged to mommy first you know? You can’t just steal them, it’s impolite. But you can take as many friends as you want later. I’ll even help you complete your collection… Just spit them out baby”

She felt reluctance

“Aww sweety, there’s no need to be jealous. They are just friends. You are family. My first child. My only child. Nobody can take you place”

Onem sent happiness through the bond, finally expulsing Len, Vyx and Bluebell from his roots. They looked alright, if not a little shaken from the nosedive?

“I guess congratulations would be in order?” Len grinned. Hearing her tame the child had been fun. He never thought that this seemingly tough person would say such sweet things…. Sticky sweet things. Hilarious.

“Congratulation? This mons—“ Interrupted by a stern look from Kif, Vyx changed his words “I mean… your child totally immobilized us… we couldn’t do anything…. And my head was down…. Do you know uncomfortable that was?”

“Onem is sorry. Aren’t you sweety? Yes he is. He just wanted to make friends with you”

“Yeah. About that… are you really gonna help him with his collection?” Vyx didn’t know if he disapproved or not. His recent frequentations were getting to him…. He felt that soon enough he’d be as freaky as them. The thing was that he didn’t even care. Why was he asking the question again?

“Yup. A promise is a promise.”

“Indeed. Promises are not to be broken” The maker nodded his head in agreement. Promises were IMPORTANT.

“Great. What’s wrong with blue?”

The esper laid sprawled on the ground and hadn’t moved since being spit out by Onem.

He hadn’t talked either. His eyes looked empty.

“Dunno” Len poked at him “He’s not moving at all. Hmm… Lemme see” Taking some coal out of his inventory, he scribbled nonsense on the pretty-boy’s face. “My professional opinion is complete un-responsiveness”

Vyx raised an eyebrow “Professional opinion?”

“Yup. What do we do now?”

Kifirin sighted “Well, we get a move on. We have to get the witch and make some money. First though…. Onem? Can you come with mommy without releasing the boulder?”

A great crushing sound was heard. The boulder had been obliterated by the roots.

“… I guess that’s taken care off. Now sweety, you’re a bit too big for mommy, so can you get smaller? It would be great if I could hold you”

The many roots pulsed faster than normal and appeared to shrink, melting into one another until only 3 of them were left. Then they twined together and revealed an obsidian-black stone. It must have been his core.

“Nice! C’mere baby” as Kifirin picked up the child, he gently wound itself around her neck. The single mom was now wearing a braided red necklace around her neck. It looked like a choker…. A pulsing choker decorated with an unknown black jewel.

Omen was leeching 50% of her mana regeneration but it didn’t bother her in the least.

………………..

“Gen…. I’m a father! Can you believe it? I’m a father! ME! A father!” That person felt like crying in bliss.

“That’s great for you my friend, that’s great for you. But why did you name him Onem?”

“I don’t remember… maybe because it sounded cool. But aww… aren’t they cute together?” It was a rhetorical question. The new daddy was going gaga over the picture of his precious and their child, totally ignoring Gen *Cute…. So cute!! I want in…**Gosh we’re daddies**Onem will make sure to protect her**She’s stroking him!**Oh yes… stroke me too**And me!**Kekeke I’m after a different stroking than you guys**Impure!**Well yes**That we are**We never pretended to be otherwise**Yeah… true**Soon… soon!**CUTE!*

…………………….

“So you’re gonna trigger all the traps and come back?” Vyx wondered how that would go. She seemed pretty self-assured so he guessed she had a way.

Unhappy with the high level of the traps, she had decided to activate them all in advance. After all…. triggering a trap did give skill proficiency…. It was just a stupid way to train. It wouldn’t be stupid for her. In fact it would be smart. With the timey-wimey skill she wouldn’t get caught in their effects so it was safe.

“Yeah. In the meantime, can you guys try to bring blue out of… well…. of whatever THAT is. Talk about women maybe? And his sock-fetish. It should elicit an answer. I think.”

“Hear hear!”

Activating Mudutu, Kifirin grabbed his cover and choose a book at random. Then she began to read, and splitting her attention, a simple feat thanks to her focus stat, she proceeded to run ahead at ‘light speed’. It activated all the traps but her time ratio made it so they hadn’t wholly triggered when she left them into the dust.

A while later she saw a new path. It left the boulder track. Seeing as the boulder had been getting faster and faster, the forking was way too far. Any other party would have died crushed. Then again the many traps would probably have ended them first. She had seen no cultist, so they must still have been on the outskirts of the maze. They needed to get to its center.

But damn, the skill was leveling-up fast. Mid-intermediate already…. Granted, the maze was gigantic, but still. It was probably linked to the extreme dangers of the traps. They were absolutely no joke… how had Kara survived? Many had motion-sensors so the flying couldn’t have been it.

Well…. Kif was safe, so no worries

Was she?

…………

Vyx and Len were following the desolation, so it was easy to get to Kif. Scorched areas. Earth-pincushion areas. Frozen area. Blasted areas. Still melting areas.

Right. The still melting area. It woke Blue up. Apparently he had been lost in calculations, but his toes disintegrating forced him back into reality.

Why his toes? Well… Lennart was dragging him around and had draped the mentally-absent men’s arms over his shoulders to do so. He had hesitated at first, but Vyx dissuaded him from using the princess-carry. Something about honor.

So, yep, Blue's feet had been sliding on the ground all along, and when the paladin merrily hopped over a sizzling puddle, his poor charge –who had been totally forgotten- happily got dipped in it.

He was grateful though. His calculations weren’t amounting to anything, which stuck him in a loop of failures. When that happened, his family generally slapped him to bring him back… so the acid may have been a bit over the top but it did the deed.

After letting blue gulp down a health potion (optionally washing the coal off his face), the boyos continued walking ahead, sometimes commenting on the original scenery. The traps were obviously linked to the elements.

Wiccans were the original children of spirit after all.

The 0-Gravity field got Len and Vyx good though, and they had to rely on Vyx’s hair dryer to get out of the area. Why did he have a hair-dryer koin? Well… why don’t you ask him? The boys certainly didn’t… his expression got scary the moment they tried to breach the subject.

Hm? Why didn’t blue use telekinesis to help them? Because he wasn’t feeling like it, that’s why. His failed calculations irritated him and he wasn’t in a particularly helpful mood. Watching his friends flailing around as he smoothly landed had helped him get over it.

He still needed to get laid though.

Badly.

………….

“Am I seeing right?” Vyx beheld the sight

Len scratched his head in confusion “That you are. What is she doing?”

Kifirin was blinking crazily fast between the entrance of the room and its middle.

Entrance. Middle. Entrance. Middle. Entrance. Etc…

It was so fast that she was kinda leaving after images and looked to be present at both places at the same time.

Where were the cooldowns? Was she even blinking? And why was she reading a book by the way? The guys weren’t aware of the timey-wimey skill and couldn’t fathom the truth. She wasn’t blinking. She was walking.

Very, very fast.

“Time. I think it had to do with time. She’s obviously caught in a time-loop” Blue was interested in the process. If the Wiccans’ maze used a time-trap, then it meant that time was an element of Spirit, regardless of the fact that mages swore that it wasn’t and simply couldn’t be. What kind of other elements had been forgotten by history?

“Huh. How do we break her out of it? Without getting caught in it, obviously”

“Great question” Vyx answered Len’s inquiry “I have no freaking idea. Our resident witch is AWOL”

The boys sat down and began brainstorming.

………..

Ankara was bored. Roasting cultists had passed its expiration date. She was bored.

BORED. BORED! Even the bastards’ screams of agony weren’t entertaining anymore… they had now blended into the general white noise and she hardly noticed them after her nova fireballs honed on to them. Yup. Nova fireballs, that was the name given to her fireballs by the system… why? She had no idea…. It wasn’t like she was near the supernova potential… was she? The purity of her fire was unrivaled, but still….. fire was the element in which she had the least elemental affinity…. A mere 158%.

Now what about the honing system? Well, she didn’t remember how she got the skill but it allowed her to release basic spells such as fireballs in great numbers and just keep them around until a target appeared. Sure, the mana costs were ridiculously high, but it was damn handy. She had mana to spare after all. Moreover, her high focus stat allowed her to use 6 elements at the same time…. So yeah, she could create fireworks alright.

She only had 4 elements available for use though, and wondered how she would ever get the quests to unlock the other 2. Gravity and Space. Blink was obviously related to space and yet it was a low level spell… so how? It was a mystery, and with time to spare, she found herself musing over the subject.

Now… if there was one thing to say about the dark period of her life that is elemental-sculpting, it’s that it had given her great assets as a magic-wielder. But damn if it hadn’t also given her a poisoned gift too.

A profession.

Elemental sculpting.

How surprising. She was so disgusted that she hadn’t even looked at the description.

But what was her party doing? Seriously… 4 days had already gone past in the game.

Sure, she killed time by grinding her skills but it was getting long. Too long. She had a Riverdance performance to prepare for.

Irish tape-dancing, here she came.

She unlogged

………..

The guys could do nothing but watch. There wasn’t anything in their arsenal that would help Kifirin…. or so had they concluded after hours of research. They were now in a difficult situation about what to do. They either waited for the rogue to miraculously beat the trap… or they gave up on her.

Option 2 was not a viable solution for many reasons, the main ones being that:

They needed Kifirin and really didn’t feel like abandoning their friend

They had to go through this room one way or another in order to leave the outskirts of the maze

There may be other time-traps laying around and getting caught up in one didn’t appeal to any of them

So yeah… waiting it was. The girl was resourceful so she would hopefully break out.

Maybe? They hoped so.

In the meantime they ate some of the rations Vyx had packed and Blue took a nap.

A while later they unlogged. They had IRL things to do.

………..

“Ara ara. That’s a bad one. She may have great time affinities, but the TW skill is acting as a multiplier on the trap’s effects. I’ve had my fun watching…. so I guess I should help her sooner than later” The Trollking smirked “We’ll be taking a fee for the intervention though”

--------------xxx--------------

Alya didn’t understand. She had been automatically unlogged from the game when she passed the 12th hours of real life playing. It was an option she had activated in order not to abuse the game but…. She hadn’t been logged that long. Had she?

She just remembered entering what she thought as the last room of the maze outskirts… and then nothing. Or did something happen? Hmm… it was hazy, but she had the feeling that something unpleasant had occurred. Ankara had admitted not remembering her actions under hidden status effects while in real life… was it her case? Unlike the witch, she had gotten no warning so it probably wasn’t it. *Oh well, I’ll see next time I play. I have a show to get to*

Riverdance Legacy, her she came!

She took her car, picked up Kathy on the way, and headed for the cultural Stadium.

Her country was really attached to culture…. Yes, regardless of her shortcomings, France had still this going for her.

The show? Well, it was awesome! And the new Riverdance member, Aoife McLaren was great. It was her first public performance but it went well and she fit right in.

Damn…. Alya really loved tap-dancing. Maybe she should take lessons?

-------------xxx-------------

Back to the game, sonar-man, the maker and Lennart were gaping. Why? Well… when the girl logged in, she was caught again in the loop, nothing new under the sun. However? The freaky red-haired dude grabbing her and snogging her against the wall like no tomorrow was unexpected.

Kifirin happily partaking in said snogging was bewildering.

……………………

As Kifirin logged back, she remembered the trap. It didn’t please her, because she hadn’t been able to break its hold over her. She had tried though. With all of her willpower. So hard…. But it failed again and again.

She resented that.

The supposed power of the mind over the body was utter bullshit. As soon as she got out of her predicament, she vowed she would skin the dimwit that had spouted such nonsense.

Yup, she felt slightly homicidal. Her body was crackling with pent-up energy.

The frustration needed an outlet, so the lack of options lead her to fantasize about the gruesome murder of one (already) dead philosopher.

So…. When her stomach lurched as she was broken out of the time loop? She wasn’t in her right mind. The feel of lips over hers became a very welcome distraction.

It was also extremly satisfying, and as her lips battled for domination with their counterparts in an animalistic dance, she certainly released all that pesky frustration.

She loved confrontation.

The hand roaming her body certainly added to the thrill. Too bad hers were now pinned against the wall.

Mister Kiss: 1 – Her: 0

But then again? Time to win

…………

Loki had released Kifirin from the trap, and was now in the middle of claiming his reward. Ignoring the stunned boys behind him, he was losing himself in the sweet spunky taste of his little shifter.

The kiss was a battle of will though. His partner seemed set on subduing him. He understood the need for control, upset as she was from the time loop but…. The one to yield would be her.

Gently but firmly taking control of the flow, he pinned her hands against the wall and began to feel her up. Smirking into the kiss, he allowed his tongue to roam. Victory was sweet.

That was a mistake.

Winning a battle does not mean you secured the war

The little minx had bit down his tongue and refused to release it.

Delightful

He graciously admitted defeat

He could still win the next time after all.

………..

Holding her partner’s tongue hostage, the panting rogue triumphantly used her newly-released hands to cup the face attached to said tongue.

Feeling him forfeit, she gently released the captive appendage and moved his head back, taking in his features.

That’s when she made the connection between mister kiss and the trollking.

That’s why she head-butted him of course.

NOT because she was even more hot and bothered when she saw whom he was.

Obviously

………..

Reeling back after Kifirin violent outburst, Loki hissed his displeasure. The smirk was back though…. And it was a knowing smirk, which infuriated the horny shifter.

He had busted her, and she knew it.

Damn, the tomato color her face took on was just lovely.

He decided that he loved seeing her mad.

So much fire. If a look could kill he’d be worm food.

Sexy vixen.

---------xxx-----------

Azraphaël came out of his meditation. Ripples. That’s what he had felt.

Once

Twice

Thrice

… Ripples. Something was going on. Was Chaos making its moves?

Maybe it was time he concerned himself with the mortal continent. It had been hundreds of years since he last took a peek after all, and shifters should have begun appearing in earnest by now.

Well… it wasn’t exactly true, a typing mistake made by the moron had raised a flag and forced him to intervene, but that was all there was to it. He hadn’t really looked up the state of things.

Nodding to his second in command Sharur, he teleported to Heimlin city. He wanted to get the feel of his capitol before overlooking the general situation of the continent, and maybe get a honeybun, one of the delicacies of the city.

He liked them very much.

*******************

Hi! I'm still in the middle of my exams but I needed a break and thought why not? Here is chapter 14 (complete). A little short I know but I like the note on which it ends ^^

So as you all guessed, Loki is the hooded guy and Gen's "friend".... how surprising! *gasp!*

Now, beware the King's game..... BEWARE! xD

I've seen the comments you made while I was away, and I'll try to answer them before I disappear again (the thing with the fire is important too, I forgot to mention : Magical fire is not good for nature, so I'll have to edit that part)

Thanks for the comments by the way, and have a nice day ya'll

Nergal