Court of Thorns: A LitRPG Story Read online

 

  Which is why we’re having this meeting, he reminded the sword.

  “Fire Shield will burn the spores off, but only three casters have them. We’ve got to protect the rest of the party.”

  “Killing the diseased mites is the easiest way to deal with them,” Gosto said. “But to strike at them without harming ourselves is a problem.”

  “Yeah. Looks like Death magic does the trick, but Blaze and I are the only ones with high resistance to it.”

  “I have a spell that Druids use to help farmers and gatherers. Kill Vermin. It slays small creatures, mostly insects and rodents, and does not affect anything larger. It works in a volume fifteen feet in radius, but it isn’t persistent, and it has a thirty second cooldown.”

  “Well, that gives us something we can work with. Maybe we can reconfigure the spell and turn it into an ongoing effect.”

  Gosto gave him a weird look. “Hawke, that is impossible at our current stage on the Path. It is only after level thirty that practitioners’ understanding of the Elements and Forces under their control allows them to modify spells or even create their own. Until then, each spell must be used as it is learned.”

  I’ve played around with spells before.

 

  “Well, no time like the present,” Hawke said before explaining what Saturnyx had told him. “I’ll have to learn that spell, then try to modify it.”

  Picking up Kill Vermin only took a few seconds of using Advanced Mana Sight and watching Gosto cast the spell a couple of times. Like the Druid had said, it wasn’t very useful in combat:

  Kill Vermin (Druid)

  Time to Cast: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Cost: 5 Mana. Duration: Instant. Range: 30 feet. Effect: Kills any lifeforms from 2 microns to 1 inch in size within a 15-foot radius.

  After learning the spell, Hawke examined its design, the different pieces that created the effect. The effect was a weak pulse of Death energy calibrated to only affect beings within a certain size, which was determined through a Life effect. The damage inflicted was not enough to do significant harm to anything larger. He recognized the pattern of the killing component; it was almost identical to those in Death Cyclone and Death Stare. He needed to identify and isolate the other pieces of the magical engine in order to change them.

  “This is going to take a while,” he told the others. “You might as well get some rest.”

  “I’ll hang around, if you don’t mind,” Grognard said. “Might as well put Mana Sight to work.”

  Hawke had offered to teach Mana Channeling to select members of the guild. Half a dozen spellcasters had taken him up on it, including Gosto, but so far only Grognard had managed to acquire it. It wasn’t as easy as learning a new spell and took a level of concentration that seemed beyond most people, even most Adventurers. Teaching Tava and Nadia had been helped by their mental connection via Saturnyx, something Hawke wasn’t willing to share with just anybody. If Grognard could learn something from the spell-crafting session, more power to him.

  He hadn’t lied about how much time it would take. For an hour, he examined the spell’s pattern, isolating its components until he could identify the one he wanted: the killing spell with the size limit. Then he spent three hours examining Blessing of Chaos, the only spell he knew that would provide an ongoing buff on someone other than himself. After some comparisons with other spells, he managed to find the components that would let him affix a spell effect on a target for thirty seconds. That wasn’t long enough to suit him, though, so he spent yet another hour seeing if he could increase the duration of the spell. He soon discovered that increasing the Mana cost was the easiest way to do lengthen the spell. By the end of the sixth hour – the sun was rising and Grognard had fallen asleep by then – Hawke had created a new spell. He even got to name it:

  Hawke’s Portable Bug Repellent (Death/Life)

  Time to Cast: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds. Cost: 180 Mana. Duration: 10 minutes. Range: 30 feet. Effect: Creates an aura of Death energies that kills any lifeforms from 2 microns to 1 inch in size within a 15-foot radius of the spell’s subject.

  The spell was grossly inefficient in terms of Mana cost, but it was the best he could do in a short time. Hawke had a feeling that playing around with other components of the spell – turning it into a touch-only effect rather than a ranged one, for example – would tighten up the energy cost, but it would probably take a lot of experimentation to get that right. The important thing was that he had made a new spell, and had also improved his Spellcraft ability:

  Congratulations! You have raised your Ability: Spellcraft to Level Four.

  You have learned: Modify Spell I. You can alter a spell by changing its variables or mixing elements from other spells. The result will be a new spell with its own effects. Modifications will raise the Mana cost of the spell by a factor of four or more, depending on the changes made. Higher levels of Modify Spell will allow you to reduce the energy cost of the new spell.

  “Excellent,” Hawke said, waking Grognard up. “I think this should take care of our mold problem.”

  He now could change his spells, adding elements from other spells. Maybe even combine multiple spells into one? That was probably a higher-level ability, but he was on the path there. If he could only have a quiet month or so to experiment he… well, he would still end up spending half his waking hours stuck in meetings or working on all the other things he was trying to learn, from unarmed combat to opening his final Chakra to improving his blacksmithing. He’d never get a quiet month, not as long as he had a Domain to tend to. Not to mention his personal life.

  I’ll just have to make time, he told himself. An hour here, an hour there. It’ll take a while but I can do it.

  The problem remained, however. He was trying to do too many things at the same time and sooner or later he would have to make some hard choices. Crafting was unlikely to be an option for him, unless he figured out a way to skip sleeping altogether, or found a way to stop time. Something like Timeless Mind, but without the nasty side effects.

  Saturnyx told him.

  Problem solved. Just have to buy one of those pocket dimensions.

 

  He had splurged and spent another fifteen shards to get a Soul Jar for Alba, which she had accepted only after he accepted her oath that she would pay him back. That would likely take a while. A friend’s life was worth more to him than any amount of money. And it wasn’t as if he was going to stop running into dangerous critters and looting their dead bodies. It was all part of the job.

  Hawke sighed. About the only good thing about the trip to the Labyrinth was that he would be too busy trying to keep everyone alive, himself included, to worry about anything else.

  Sixteen

  You are about to enter: Malleus Mallum: The Crushing Evil

  Level Twenty-Five Labyrinth

  Six Quests Available!

  Warning! Entering this Labyrinth will place your Reincarnation site on the entrance. You will lose 3 Identity points every time you die while inside the Labyrinth.

  “Level twenty-five? What the hell?” Artos shouted as the notification appeared in front of everyone’s eyes.

  Early that morning, the party had reached the entrance to the M&M, along with a troop of Imperial cavalry tasked with taking the party’s ordinary horses back with them. Mounts really didn’t work in most Proving Grounds areas, since narrow corridors and low-ceiling chambers were the most c
ommon terrain. Magical mounts like the ones most former Nerf Herders owned could be stored in their inventories, and Blaze and Luna could shrink themselves to fit narrow spaces. Regular horses were useless.

  All of that was expected. What wasn’t was the discovery that the Labyrinth had jumped up in level seemingly overnight.

  “How can you break the level cap?” Aristobulus asked.

  “You can’t,” Hawke said. “But I know this Labyrinth is connected to other places. The Gates to Tartarus, for example. Which leads to Tartarus itself. I don’t know what level Hell is set at…”

 

  “… but it’s got to be pretty damn high. My guess is that the final stages of the Labyrinth are located in higher Realms.”

  They were standing in front of an arched gateway. An open one; the walls to either side were crumbled or gone in several spots. Neither the walls nor the gate were meant to keep people out. They simply marked the boundaries of the Labyrinth. Crossing them would alert any wandering monsters in the lightly wooded ruins inside that dinner was served.

 

  Hawke looked at everyone in the group. Amelia and Aristobulus were visibly fretting and nervous. Everyone else looked unhappy and tense, except Alba, Tava and Gosto, who had grown used to nasty surprises ever since they’d crossed paths with one Hawke Lightseeker, troublemaker extraordinaire.

 

  Thanks for keeping me humble, Auntie Nyx.

 

  I bet I will. In bed.

  The sword merely sniffed at that.

  “I’m going in there anyway. The mission hasn’t changed. We’ll cut straight to the deeper levels and try to learn who or what is causing the problems in the Labyrinth. And to stop them if possible.”

  “How are we supposed to learn anything?” Amelia asked. “Look for clues like we are in an episode of Law and Order? We aren’t cops.”

  “We have people who will take care of that,” Hawke said. Thanks to our Mana Sight, he thought but didn’t say out loud. Telling people he had special abilities he wasn’t willing to teach them would only breed jealousy and anger.

  “You guys are muscle,” he told the former Nerf Herders. “Your job is to keep everyone alive. Your experience in the M&M will help us get through it. That’s what you bring to the table.”

  “Good enough for me,” K-Bar said. “We’ll share all the intel we’ve got on the place.”

  “That works. We’re going to have enough problems with the mutated monsters. Let’s concentrate on surviving this.”

  Hawke checked the available quests. A Labyrinth that size should have had dozens of possible missions, but only six were listed. Four of those were ‘fetch quests’ involving hidden items inside the middle levels of the Labyrinth. He didn’t bother accepting them, since he wasn’t planning on exploring the damn place any more than he had to. The other two were ‘kill x monster’ quests:

  QUEST: Cleanse the Labyrinth

  The Malleus Mallum has been corrupted by followers of Chaos. Destroying the transformed minions of the Labyrinth will help cleansing it.

  Objective: Destroy 50 Chaotic Minions.

  Rewards: 5,000 XP, 1 platinum, one random level 22-25 item (Masterwork Quality).

  Penalties for Failure: None.

  Accept? Y/N

  QUEST: Defeat the Guardians

  The beasts of the Malleus Mallum were led by forty-seven Guardians, powerful Constructs, Elementals, Fiends, or Lords. All of them have been transformed or possessed by Chaos. Destroying them will weaken the infestation afflicting the Labyrinth.

  Objective: Destroy Guardians (0/47).

  Rewards: For each defeated Guardian: 2,500 XP, 25 gold and one random level 24-29 item (Enchanted or Masterwork Quality). If all Guardians are defeated: 50,000 XP, 1 soul shard, four pieces of a class-specific weapons/armor set (level 25-30, Epic Quality).

  Penalties for Failure: None.

  Accept? Y/N

  Hawke accepted both quests, although he had no intention of killing forty-seven bosses (a.k.a. ‘guardians’). That sounded like a living hell, grinding almost fifty super-elite monsters plus hundreds if not thousands of minions and lieutenants. Picking up a little extra XP and cash for individual kills wouldn’t hurt, however.

  Amelia raised her hand. “You’re still planning to go through the Obsidian Wing, right?”

  “Yep. Any problems with using it? From what you guys told us, we only need to go through four floors to reach the final section if we use the Secret Staircase. We beat the Obsidian Wing boss and then we can go to the Deepest Pits”

  “The Emerald Wing has a secret passage as well. It will take us from the second to the final level in one straight shot. Only three areas to overcome instead of five.”

  “Really?” Aristobulus told Amelia. “Nobody told me about a secret passage.”

  “Nobody told me either,” K-Bar joined. The other ex-Nerf Herders said the same.

  The mage lowered her head. “Only five people knew, and I’m the only one who is still alive. Our party stumbled into it during a run. We figured that the info was too valuable to share.”

  “So that’s how you made three levels during in a single run,” Aristobulus said, eyes bright with anger. “You bitch! Do you know how many lives we burned to make it to the Pits?”

  “If we’d told Kaiser, he would have made us grind the Emerald Wing all the time!” she barked back. “It’s freaking dangerous in there. That shortcut cost all of us one life. But that’s not the worst part. You have to make a deal with the Gatekeeper. You always end up paying more than you want to.”

  Hawke turned his full attention to the woman. “Start from the beginning, please.”

  * * *

  After hearing her story, Hawke decided to go with Amelia’s shortcut. It wasn’t going to be easy or pleasant, especially with the likely changes to the place, but getting to the bottom of the Labyrinth quickly was too tempting to pass up. They had to make it through the M&M’s outer layer first, of course.

  The party passed through the gate in a loose formation. Alba was in stealth mode and moved slightly ahead of the group. Hawke was in front of the main party, with K-Bar to his left and Grognard to the right. Rabbit and Luna guarded the left flank, Blaze and Digger the right one. The rest of the group followed in a double line, with Artos serving as the rear guard. They had stacked all the buffs they could generate, everything from magical shields that would block most missiles to Hawke’s new anti-mold spell and Gosto’s Bark Skin.

  They barely made it a hundred feet in when they were attacked.

  Wolves the size of ponies bounded from behind one of the ruined towers and charged. A dozen or more, yellow eyes glinting angrily over slavering jaws. And they were diseased, covered in dark green boils that oozed some clear thick liquid.

  Defiled Dire Wolves

  Level 15 Elite Minions

  Health 3,000 Mana 750 Endurance 3,000

  The closest wolves were a hundred feet away and moved fast enough to cover the distance in a couple of seconds. Hawke and Grognard engaged them with ranged spells. The front and flanking forces were outside the Mana Dome that Amelia immediately erected around the rest of the group. The attackers would have to batter their way through the energy sphere if they wanted to get past the ranged members of the party, who had begun opening fire. One of the nice things about Mana Domes was that the people inside could launch attacks through them without penalties; the energy barriers only stopped energy coming from the outside.

  Four monsters went down before the rest reached the group. The dire critters spat venom at the outer defenders, but the noxious droplets didn’t do much. Hawke beheaded
the closest one with a well-timed swing. Alba, Grognard and K-Bar each took down one, and the Drakofoxes and pets teams finished off the rest in a matter of seconds. The mutated monsters might have been elite minions, but they were too low level to present a threat to the party. Hawke earned a whole 38 XP and 3 silver denars for the fight. If the Realms ‘operating system’ didn’t think you were in danger, it didn’t reward you very much.

  Hawke figured he’d start earning better rewards before they went much further.

  Seventeen

  The party was attacked twice more before reaching their goal. A band of Defiled Dire Serpents proved to be mostly an annoyance, and a second pack of Defiled Dire Wolves fared no better than the first. But Hawke was worried. The outer level of the Labyrinth was supposed to be the easiest, but those attacks would have destroyed most adventuring parties. Only the fact that half of the group was level-capped and that his Leadership boosted everyone else accordingly had allowed them to beat off those attacks without much trouble. The power and ferocity of the surface guardians was more than enough to show that something was terribly wrong.

  According to what Hawke had learned from veteran dungeon-crawlers and by reading a handful of what could only be described as travel brochures, there were three main entrances leading down to each of the main wings of the Labyrinth. Each wing had its own distinct inhabitants and ‘flavor.’ The Obsidian Wing was a place of Elemental constructs of all kinds, everything from gargoyles to golems to creatures of light or electricity; its areas – ten ‘floors,’ each as vast as an entire Dungeon – were narrow and built-up, divided into neat rooms and filled with arcane machinery. The Abaddon Wing was full of Infernal creatures and its architecture and denizens were similar to what Hawke had encountered in the Gates to Tartarus. The gates linking the two Labyrinths had to be there. It only had nine floors, but they were supposed to be tough and nobody knew of a shortcut.