Chapter 07

We decided to spend the night back at our lodges and regroup the next morning for the second dungeon chain. Before heading back, we had scouted out the next dungeon, learning that it was a level 3.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a whole lot of time to look into some things I was curious about. Support shields were all that was on my mind. Pelle’s Star Armor was weak, but the potential was there for something like that to be quite handy in battle. Neither her nor I knew how much armor it afforded, nor how much damage it mitigated until breaking. My biggest question was: Did it accrue damage overtime that led to it breaking, or did a single delivery of enough damage break it?

Since we had no time to find Garmar and ask, our questions were left unanswered. For that reason, I turned to the only source of information I had on hand: Beyond the Blood.

Pelle and I had retired to our dorm. Her mana bar filled the room with light, and turned the red Pyrrhon’s potion bottles a deep purple. They were still stacked in their piles, and I think we still had around 180 or something.

While Pelle was busy leveling things up, and absorbing the mana crystal we’d earned, I read up on Beyond the Blood a bit more, eager to get to the chapter which discussed support shields.

The author—of course—began by imploring the warrior to interrogate their comrade healer on their proficiency with support shields. Though they didn’t actually refer to the healer as a comrade. It (the healer) would ideally be proficient in using the most well known support shields, which were: Gelmitheon’s Orb, Tsunic Lake, Scales of Makor, and Koby Cathedral.

The author explained that, “Gelmitheon’s Orb resembles a giant translucent pearl when the party is looking out from within the orb. Enemies will not be able to see party members from the outside. The party will be protected from ballistic attacks. Enemies that penetrate Gelmitheon’s Orb will endure a tremendous amount of damage for the entire duration that they are touching the orb.

The healer controlling Gelmitheon’s Orb can increase and decrease the size of the orb at will, essentially using the barrier as a highly effective strategy of both attack and defense. Finding a healer that is proficient in using Gelmitehon’s Orb is highly recommended.”

“Interesting,” I mumbled quietly to myself. “Sounds quite powerful.”

“Tsunic Lake is an entirely different beast. Once cast, bronze light will flood the party. The light is self contained in a small area surrounding the party. The sensation feels like being under water, yet still being able to breath and move freely. High level Tsunic Lake’s will completely fill the area with bronze light, completely submerging the party. Low level Tsunic Lake’s will simply fill the area with bronze light up to party member’s ankles.

Tsunic Lake works by slowing down enemy attacks. Enemies that cross the barrier and enter the bronze light are then subjected to violent waves of light that crash into them, dealing a tremendous amount of damage.

This is a sought after support shield and more infrequently used than Gelmitheon’s Orb. The slow down effect against enemies is what makes this a sought after support shield by the most legendary warriors.”

“Geez. These are amazing. I wonder if you can combine them, or if that’s even necessary,” I thought aloud.

The next support shield the author coveted were the Scales of Makor. The author said, “This is one of the more difficult support shields to master, yet its difficulty is balanced by the sheer amount of damage it can deal.

The healer will summon a silver dragon with a long belly that a two story house could easily pass through. The dragon will pass through any and all environments. It will appear head first and swallow the party whole. From that moment on, the party is within the support shield, which is the dragon. They will be able to see through the silver scales of the dragon from within. The scales can be broken by enemies, but as the dragon continues to move, fresh scales will have moved in place of the broken ones.

The dragon is controlled by the healer who manipulates the shield’s movements through a small figurine replica that hovers before the caster. The healer can observe broken scales the shield suffers, reflected through the figurine.

Scales of Makor deals a tremendous amount of ripping damage when enemies are struck by the moving scales. It's important to note that the scales only deal damage when enemies are struck against the grain of the scales. The healer must be a master at manipulating the Scales of Makor to replace broken scales, meanwhile striking enemies with the scales moving in the precise direction to deal maximum damage.”

“Sounds like there’s a tremendous learning curve,” I mumbled.

“The last of the great four support shields,” the author went on to say, “which greatly benefit the warrior class, is Koby Cathedral. There are few support shields that exist like this one. Its main function is in providing impassable barriers against enemies. Normal support shields cannot prevent enemies from penetrating the shield. Koby Cathedral is the most prominent support shield that does exactly that.

Depending on the level of the support shield, an entire cathedral is summoned around the party. The cathedral has multiple levels, balconies, windows, and parapets for party members to attack from with ballistics. The cathedral is made of stained light and cannot be moved, so the party must stay with the cathedral. It must be recast once the party moves forward.

The warrior must place themselves at the entrance of the cathedral behind tall double doors. Those doors are the only part of the cathedral where enemies can enter. This forces enemies to enter a few at a time, therefore managing the warriors' battle.

Some warriors find this support shield to be restrictive and demeaning to their abilities in being able to handle a multitude of enemies. Other warriors appreciate the bottleneck of monsters.”

“Crazy,” I whispered. “A whole cathedral as a shield.”

The author then went on to encourage the warrior to dismiss healers who aren’t good enough to even possess one those four support shields. At the end of the chapter there were exceptions in case one could not find a proper healer. Acceptable support shield types were then listed. Those support shields included God Wall, Mercury Sentry, Python Interrupter, Star Armor, Eternal Martyr, and Beuneeda’s Barricade.

Unfortunately, the chapter was quite short. I guess I was lucky enough to get as much information as I did, considering the book was all about warriors.

“They’ve got Star Armor listed in here,” I told Pelle as she withdrew her mana bar, and the room was no longer swimming in blues.

“Really? What does it say?”

“It’s in a list of other support shields that are recommended. It doesn’t say much else about it. It Just mentions it. You should read this, though. It’s got some descriptions of a few other support shields that sound absolutely awesome.”

While Pelle read through the descriptions, I took the half hour to absorb the mana from the crystal I’d earned from our previous dungeon run. I acquired 8 more mana points. For the crystals on the book, I was going to wait till Pelle was either asleep, or do it in the morning when I was alone or something.

“This is a weird book,” Pelle said.

“Yea, it’s not quite healer friendly.”

“Where’d you get this?”

“Loot.”

“Those support shields are awesome though,” she said.

“Yea. That's the only thing awesome in the book so far. It’s a difficult read. I don’t quite share the mentality the author has toward healers.”

“I wish it said more about Star Armor.”

“Well, we know that it’s a coveted support shield,” I said. “I mean—the author has good faith in it.”

“I don’t know if I’d trust this author on anything,” she said.

“Anyways, are you going to level up Star Armor?”

“I honestly don’t have that much mana left so I have to be picky. So, no.”

“You said it has a power rune right? Level 1?”

“Mmhmm.”

“I’ll level it up a few points for you.”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“Well to be honest, I’d like to see what it can do with a little leveling. Consider it a gift. For your birthday or something.”

“My birthday isn't until summer.”

“Then a gift for your birthday next summer.”

I wasn’t going to push too hard on leveling her Star Armor. My intentions weren’t exactly selfless, and I told her that. We were on a dungeon chain, with four more chains to defeat. Leveling Star Armor would be a small investment I make in our crawl. Mostly, I really wanted to see the potential that a support shield could have. It wouldn’t be too far from now that we’d all start diving into higher level dungeons. Even though we were allegedly going to go over this with Garmar, why not spend a little bit of my mana on someone else? Healing wasn’t the only way to support others, right?

Pelle and I came to an agreement and I decided to level Star Armor by 24 points. All those mana points went solely to the power rune that was smaller than a thumbtack on the back of the charm.

“Want to try it out?” Pelle said after I returned the charm and necklace to her.

“Try it out?”

“Yea, I’ll cast it on us, and we can try to break it.”

“Right here?”

“Why not?”

I gestured to the piles of potions delicately stacked around the room. Pelle didn’t see any problem with swinging our weapons around a bunch of glass, but I was able to negotiate that we head down to the commons.

There were a few other healers huddled around the book of afflictions, but they paid us no mind. After moving a couple of tables out of the way, Pelle cast Star Armor.

We were both promptly encased in two egg shaped orbs. It was like looking through glass embedded with layers upon layers of distant galaxies and nebulas.

“It looks different,” Pelle said.

It did look different, as though leveling it up also brought our definition of its galactic depictions.

For a few minutes, we simply watched in awe as the show of galactic stars shimmered just as they would in a clear night sky. It was beautiful and calming. Centering.

“I have an idea!” Pelle said with sudden excitement. Without delay she sprinted away. “C’mon Tosin! Follow me!”

We ran across the guild grounds. Pelle led us to a trail that wound through a meadow, then off onto one of the darkest forest paths around.

“Pelle!” I said as we entered the deeply shadowed path. “Wait! What are we doing out here?”

She came to a halt and we caught our breaths for a few moments. It was nearly pitch black around us. If the sky hadn’t been overcast, and about to snow, there might have been moon and starlight that speckled the forest and ground around us. As it was, I could barely see my own hands in front of my face—it was that dark.

Suddenly we were both encased with Star Armor. Pelle quietly cast the spell and we stood across from each other in what I’m sure would forever be one of the most magical moments of my life.

The orbs of Star Armor were translucent, and we each dimly glowed behind the light that the spell cast. Pelle had a huge smile. Ear to ear. She was absolutely delighted. I was speechless myself. It felt like we were floating in space. All I could see were layers of churning galaxies and nebulas that slowly plumed. Stars shivered in the wall of the Star Armor.

Pelle was looking all around her orb. Above her were millions of stars. Behind her there were millions of stars. All around me were millions of stars. I was passing my hand through Star Armor, through millions of stars. I was stepping backward, not anticipating that Star Armor would follow me, forgetting that it would. It was moving with me, and all the stars moved as I moved, slowly revolving around the egg shaped orb. Pelle was seeing this too and she was gasping in delight, before walking around as well. We were walking circles around each other, entranced by the delightful show.

“Amazing,” One of us was eventually able to say.

“Absolutely amazing,” the other said in response.