“It’s not that, kid, chill.” Hans waved him down, speaking in a perplexed tone. “I thought that was the right way as well. What do you think Craig?”
“No idea.” Craig’s tense voice muttered. “It’s all different today.”
Steve chimed in softly, “This may be dangerous, boys. If we can’t tell where to go, we may walk directly into traps. Be extra careful today.”
“Vigilance!” Roared Josh, badly startling everyone. A couple of them even had to force themselves to stop attacking on reflex.
With a withering glance Steve rounded on Josh, “Yes, thank you for your input. Very helpful.”
I chuckled at that. <Dani, looks like there is some infighting going on here. I didn’t think this would be enough to make them panic like they are.>
“Losing your way can be scary!” Dani shuddered.
<Pff, I don’t get it. It’s not a big deal.>
“You can’t get lost! You don’t go anywhere!” Dani gasped at my nonchalant dismissal.
I quickly directed her attention away, <Oh look, they are fighting the Boss.>
They had made their way through the admittedly easy first floor maze, quickly ending the useless Boss, which made me explode with frustration again.
<Damn it! Stupid thing always dies!> I judgmentally thought of the weak plant- based monster.
“Why not put more Mobs in there? Or a squad, and call ‘em the Boss.” Dani seemed perplexed at my dislike of the current Boss.
<Is that a good idea? Then they know what to expect on the next floor.>
“I think they already know. The squad system is too strong already for most of the groups, even though they are common Mobs on the second floor. I do agree that the first floor is too easy, a squad will be a good challenge at least.”
<What would I do with the Bloody Bane? I know it is stupid, but I made it and I don’t want to just toss it away…>
She was ruthless, probably sick of me complaining about it all the time. “It’s weaker than your common Mobs, how about put it near acid traps and pitfalls? Pull people into them instead of hoping they fall on their own, or use it as a sacrifice to set traps off. That worked really well with that injured basher, right? Plus, the first floor is so weak now that Dale’s group is just waltzing on through. Dale could clear it by himself now! Heck, when is the last time someone even got badly injured there?” Dani stopped my interjection with a harsh truth, “You need to devote some of your Essence to upkeep and upgrades, not just constant expansion.”
<Bah. What’s wrong with hoarding?> I grumbled, unhappily acknowledging that she had good points. <I am going to need a week or so to get that level of Essence to spare, unless a few people die off today. Let’s try and get Dale again, seeing him run for his life always cheers me up.>
Ooh, taking them down today may come to pass! They were moving into a tunnel on the second floor that would drop a stone door behind them, flooding a small space with acid. I could hardly wait to taste that C-ranked Essence from the main group. I caught my ‘breath’ as they walked in, and with a joyful yell I slammed the door down behind them. Their shouts of fear made my excitement rise to a fever pitch as I made preparations for large inputs of Essence.
“Calm Down! There has to be a way out if we aren’t dead yet!” The ever calm Craig took control, looking around. His eyes widened as he saw the acid beginning to pour in, his mouth forming a grim line.
“Look around for a lever, an opening, a button; anything out of place!” Hans directed, the sound of pouring liquid and hissing acid nearly drowning him out. The air was starting to become toxic as the stone melted, releasing fumes. Craig was moving his hands in complex patterns, light remaining where his nimble fingers moved.
As Dale looked around wildly, his Essence infused eyes caught upon a lighter patch on the wall a foot above his head on the other side of the tunnel. “There!” He shouted, pointing at the spot. Acid had pooled between them and the button, so Steve pulled out an arrow and notched it to his bow.
“No! You may break it!” Hans shouted, pushing the bow aside.
“Josh!” Craig snapped, hands still fluttering, “Boot!”
The benefit of working as a team for a long period of time was that complete sentences were rarely needed in dire circumstances. Josh moved over and held his armored leg up, the boot next to the glowing pattern in the air. Craig moved his hand again, what was obviously an enchantment flowed into being on the bottom of the proffered boot.
“Go!” Josh ran at the acid flowing across the ground, not stopping as he flung himself at the bubbling fluid. I watched and waited for his foot to start melting when it became submerged in the hissing acid. Sadly, the Rune on his boot flared to life, making the acid recede just enough to leave a dry spot on the floor where he landed. I was horrified as the area around him cleared of all liquid, though it was nearly a half inch deep just outside that zone. The others were on higher ground, but he should have been ooze by now! He sprinted, nearly flying across the now clear ground, and leapt to meet the button on the wall.
With only a minor complaint, I saw the acid stop flowing and quickly drain away, leaving only scarred stone to show it had ever been there. Boo. These guys were resourceful. The door slowly raised behind them as the last dregs of fluid vanished; I was nothing if not fair.
“That was amazing!” Dale shouted, pumping his fist into the air and giving Hans a wild hug. “I never knew enchanting was so fast!”
“It normally isn’t.” Steve glanced at Craig with admiration. “Fast enchantments are dangerous; I highly doubt Craig would have done that if we weren’t in deep shit there.”
Craig gravely nodded. “Agreed. Let’s avoid that in the future.”
“What? That was cool! When will you teach me to enchant?” Dale excitedly bubbled.
“I may not. It depends on what you want to do when you learn all the other options. Enchanting isn’t popular because you permanently lose a bit of your cultivation base for each enchantment, and have to re-refine the Chi. Rebuilding your cultivation base is hard, as you know. When you use your Essence for other, normal things, it will flow back into your center over time.” Craig tiredly lectured. “With enchanting it is just… gone.”
“Oh.” Dale was less eager now. “You said what you did was dangerous?”
“If I did it wrong, it might have exploded, or maybe just dissipated. If I made a correct Rune, but not the one I was going for, it may have had... unintended effects.” Craig hedged.
“Like if you made the inverse.” Hans spoke out in a low tone, eliciting a shudder from the others.
“What?” Dale hesitantly probed.
Josh took over, “The inverse of a Rune reverses its effects. Simple right? In this case instead of repelling the acid, it would have attracted all of it in range.”
Dale joined in the shuddering, thinking about what would have happened if the acid had completely covered poor Josh. It would have been like he never existed.
“But he made it, wouldn’t he know if it were the inverse?” Dale prodded.
“When he made it, yeah. But what if he applied it upside down in his hurry before activating it?” Hans explained.
“Oh.” Dale was quiet for a moment. “I’m glad it worked out.”
“I think we all are. Let’s go kill a Boss.” Josh rumbled. “I need some fresh air.”
They moved away from the dead end, systematically searching each area, skillfully avoiding traps until they finally found my Boss room. They were concerned at the bright light coming from the room until they saw the source, at which point they were excited by the new, bright fighting arena. I say arena, because we certainly had an audience today. People had been crowding along the area above until this group finally showed, at which point they started cheering and placing bets. Somehow the sound came in clearly from above, yet I am fairly certain they could not hear what happened down here.