Chapter 64 – Boiling Point (Patreon)

Hadron Riser, hands clasped behind his back, paced up and down the line of kneeling men. “I will ask once more and only once more. Somebody had to see something. Who killed Eli? His body was torn to shreds. You do not do that and get away unseen. Each of you were on duty that night, TELL ME WHO IT WAS!”

The men flinched at the sudden spittle flying from Hadron’s lips, but none of them knew anything. They repeated the same story as before.

All was quiet that night. The slave pens were restless, so Tom went to go check on them, one of the slaves was murdered but they chalked it up to the savagery of slaves and didn’t bother to investigate further.

When they returned, Eli was gone. They didn’t think anything of it and continued standing guard. It wasn’t until the next day, when the New Sun’s High Seat convened the next morning, that 3 members were found missing.

Two were dead, the third was presumed missing until they found Eli’s remains.

Up until that point, it was assumed that Eli was a turncoat. The theory was that he had killed two members, stole a bunch of treasure, and fled into the night.

All 3 members were vital to the operations of the New Sun. They were in charge of the slaves, the raids on other camps, and Eli was their most experienced Healer with a rare, evolved class that he wouldn’t tell anybody but Hadron about.

Hadron looked at the first man and nodded. A sword glided across his throat before he could cry out. His cold eyes drifted to the next kneeling man. “Still don’t know anything?”

The man shook his head. Another blade took up its role.

Hadron hated killing indiscriminately, but his guards had to know better. If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. The New Sun had risen to the top as the cream was wont to do, but it was not without its troubles.

Ever since his brother was murdered and his inability to find anything useful about his killer beyond the name Luke Solus, everything had been an uphill struggle. The little streak of nothing had taken refuge in a well-defended group, but he had it on good authority that they hated him almost as much as Hadron did.

When he set out some feelers, he discovered that the boy had fled and was missing. No idea where he went, no sight of him from any of his scouts or their contacts.

It would have consumed him if he let it, but Hadron was never the sort of man to spiral. He shared the pain with those around him. It motivated them.

And the slaves made building and securing their new palace easy. No wonder all ancient civilizations did it!

There were thousands of people in this assessment test, anyway. And after Eli had talked to him about the Romans and how they had allowed their slaves to earn their freedom by working hard for their betters, the morale and the effectiveness of their slave army rose considerably.

Suddenly people saw a way out, and that was by doing what they were being forced to do anyway! Hadron didn’t get it, but Eli did.

The Healer’s betrayal had hit him hard.

Not that his death was any consolation apart from telling Hadron that he had been right to trust the man. Losing Eli’s ultra-rare Unyielding Archon Healer evolution was a painful blow to the New Sun.

Eli had been his personal healer. The man had seen him through some serious scrapes and now he was gone, and the New Sun was down 3 core members who would need to be replaced if they were to keep earning LP.

Purchasing that [Bastion Crystal] had been expensive, but worth it. However, the constant LP it required to keep its buffs and protections active was a drain that would be hard to keep up if they didn’t have a full 6-man group to go raiding with.

Hadron turned to the next man in line, who gave him the same tired story. Did they think he was stupid?

It’s going to be a long night, he thought sourly as he sent another man to meet his maker.

***

Marcy Mills sauntered with purpose down a crumbling stairwell, followed by her entourage of guards and sycophants. She wasn’t foolish enough to venture down into the underground floors of Havenholm without added protection.

She knew what—and most importantly, who—lurked below. Jerry had taken to calling the sewers and storerooms his home, and she did not want him disturbed.

She, and by extension, Havenholm, were already reaping the sweet fruits of her labors.

The New Sun found itself missing key personnel they would not be able to replace in a hurry. That would lower the pressure they were putting on Havenholm and the surrounding groups, leaving Marcy and Henry free to operate with impunity.

If only she could have used Jerry to strike at the Sentinels of Steel, but their fortress was buttoned up tighter than Fort Knox. Nobody knew anything about them, and nobody who went inside was seen again.

Presumably they had some way of getting about, but Jerry couldn’t find it and he was constantly distracted by food anyway, so he wasn’t the best scout.

With him finally sent after Luke, Marcy could hopefully kill two birds with one stone.

If her luck continued to hold out, they would kill each other. So far, her luck had been killer.

It’s almost as if somebody above wants me to succeed, she thought with a cold smile.

That same sense told her that Luke was alive. He had always been a wet towel when she knew him, but there was an iron core to that man.

True, it was buried deep, but she had seen it rise to the surface when her group had found him.

It was a shame he wasn’t as moldable as before. She could have used his talents.

Still, Jerry was getting… unpredictable and erratic. He was a useful tool, but eventually even the most useful tools need to be shelved and put away.

Sooner or later, Jerry was going to explode, and Marcy fully intended to be well out of the blast radius when he did.

Plots and plans for the future spun through Marcy’s head as she instilled mana into the [Glowstone Lamp] attached to her belt. Most passageways were unlit down here. There were simply too many to cover. Even something as hilariously basic as medieval torches were in short supply.

Only three people in nearly a 100 souls had managed to obtain a profession, and none of them knew exactly what they had done to get it. Two Cooks, and one Tinkerer. Both useful professions, but she hungered for a proper profession like Alchemist or Blacksmith.

Anybody who could make something useful for them to increase their strength.

No matter how Henry and her dressed up the grandeur of Havenholm’s fortress, its lower levels were still a dilapidated ruin plagued by monsters. Both from within and without.

The underground was still being charted, and the occasional [Unliving Root] breaking in didn’t help matters much.

Manning the walls above the bridge was generally considered to be of greater strategic importance to Henry, but Marcy saw the value in this clandestine area, if for slightly different purposes.

It led somewhere useful. Of that, she was certain. Luke had escaped down here. If he could survive in the depths, she could. Something down here offered power. She could feel it in her bones. Possibly a dungeon, possibly something more.

When she came to an old battered wooden door rusted with age, she told her guards to wait there. They obeyed eagerly as she slipped into the door beyond and hurried ahead.

Marcy walked from passageway to passageway, eventually climbing down another floor that opened up into a vast space filled with marching columnar pillars, all shrouded in unnatural gloom.

Arches set into the distant walls led to various tunnels. Some secure, some not so much.

“I should have brought Rachel,” she said to the gloom as she lifted her lantern up and examined the cavernous space.

But this was too secretive even for her protégé to find out about. Some things were best done alone.

After an hour of searching–and a few dead creepy crawlies courtesy of her frost magic–Marcy found what she was looking for.

A faded and cracked mural running the length of one expansive room, its fluted columns crumbling into rubble. This was the remains of a once-great castle. She could feel the faint traceries of magic worked through the stone.

With her lantern lifted high, Marcy studied the mural with great interest, but of even greater interest was the quest she received for discovering it.

She smiled to herself and knew she had been right to come alone. This was too big for anybody else to see. And there was no telling what the System would do if another person saw this.

With a slight pang of loss, Marcy raised a hand, conjured a spell in her mind, and blasted the mural apart with diamond-hard shards of ice.

Now nobody could get the same quest.

Her legacy would be secured.

The ground shook and quaked, and for a moment Marcy was afraid she had set something off, some trap she hadn’t seen.

Then she saw the next notification and her blood chilled.

Havenholm is now the focus of the King in the Deep’s ire.

Quest: Depths of Despair

Your settlement has been targeted by one of the Four Kings. Without a Bastion Crystal, your group is defenseless against the King in the Deep’s vast power. Brace yourself for battle, because the King in the Deep is coming and he will bring his armies of the Deep. He will not stop until Havenholm is destroyed or his attention is brought elsewhere. Should you survive, the rewards for Havenholm will be great. But should you slay the King, your rewards will be beyond measure.

***

The last few days, Luke spent every waking moment in the Gordian. With Alfair’s help, he was able to set the entry location to the platform nearest to the library, saving him precious time.

Now all he had to do was swim through the tunnel instead of crawling below a deafening pair of slamming walls or avoid slipping down a deadly pitfall trap.

Because Yindferl’s figurine was technically bound to Alfair, whenever Luke was pulled out of the Gordian, her figurine returned to the elf.

Alfair imparted what knowledge he could of Dunamis, which allowed Luke’s rank to go from Mundane (1) to Mundane (7) in a relatively short time.

After he hit Mundane (3) he was able to lace his skills and body with faint traces of Dunamis. This had the benefit of massively increasing their effectiveness, but the tradeoff was a greater cost of mana and stamina.

With his higher Endurance, Luke was able to utilize [Sneak Attack] effectively, and with Yindferl’s help, most of his battles didn’t last longer than the opening attacks.

“What is your rank now?” Alfair asked, hands laced in front of his wide brocaded belt. They had been training Dunamis again, forcing Luke to store as much as he could, then using a thread of it to empower his body without using skills.

It was slow and grueling work, but Luke had seen the most results with this sort of training and they both agreed it seemed to suit him best by pushing his limits as hard as possible.

“Let me check,” Luke said, sweating profusely and collapsing into a wooden chair.

Yindferl was resting in her pocket dimension, which afforded Luke the perfect opportunity to sneak in some more training. When she was rested, he would go back out with her. Two more nodes were repaired, and each trek was becoming more dangerous.

Without Yindferl, Luke would have been killed a dozen times over. They were fast becoming close friends. Even though the drake couldn’t speak, Luke knew she understood him.

He could talk to her unlike anybody else. He knew that once the Gordian was repaired, he would have to say goodbye for good.

It would break his heart. So he threw himself into his training to avoid thinking about it.

Status

Name: Luke Solus

Race: Human (F-Grade - Level 20)

Dunamis Rank: Mundane (7)

Class: Thief (Level 29)

Profession: Shadetouched Runegraver (Level 11)

Vital Resources

Health Points (HP): 1,690/1,690

Mana Points (MP): 1,600/1,600

Stamina Points (SP): 890/890

Stats

Strength: 165 (+8)

Dexterity: 271 (+8)

Endurance: 89

Fortitude: 65 (+6)

Vitality: 169

Perception: 138 (+2)

Willpower: 94 (+14)

Wisdom: 160

Arcane: 139

Fate: 98

Free Points: 0

“Still 7,” Luke reported.

Alfair nodded as if he didn’t expect anything less. “Let’s take it again from the top, then. Breathe in the Dunamis, feel it filling your every cell…”