TS6 Chapter 4

A trio of quills hit the sand next to Kat, each of them sending up a plume of detritus as they buried themselves an arms length deep, leaving only a small amount of their sharp chitin vibrating in the humid air.  She kicked off the ground.  Gravity responded to her will, and even though Kat wasn’t able to get much of a foothold on the unsteady and shifting earth, she launched herself easily into the sky a fraction of a second before the sand collapsed into a sinkhole under her, revealing a fanged circular maw that convulsed as it tried to devour the scampering morsels that were attacking it from above.

Ten or so paces away, Dorrik’s swords scissored through the black, rubbery stalk that had just launched its quills at Kat.  It flopped to the sand twitching and leaking violet blood only to be replaced by another two tentacles.

On a nearby dune, another three quills hit Kaleek deflecting off of his armor in a flash of mana and knocking him to the ground.  Before the monster’s appendage could regrow its spikes, Kat lined up a shot on it with her crossbow.  Energy drained from her, empowering the bolt a fraction of the second before she pulled the trigger.

The bolt whistled through the air stabbing into the side of the tentacle, triggering the Gravity Spike that Kat had invested in the attack.  Air compressed in on itself, kicking sand into a whirlwind as the spell twisted and tore at the fabric of reality itself.

Kaleek rolled back onto his feet, nodding at Kat as the quill stalk slumped bonelessly to the sand.  Beneath her, the giant mouth gnashed its maw helplessly, letting out a groan of pain as her team pruned its extremities.

“On your left!” A high pitched voice shouted.  Kat didn’t even bother to look, yanking herself to her right with gravity a fraction of a second before the mana in the air around her collapsed inward.  It crackled for a second, flickering with arcane potential before hardening into a sphere of glossy red rock about the size of her torso.

The rock burst into flame and accelerated downward.  Effortlessly, Kat touched it with her mind, increasing the pull of gravity on the projectile as she aimed it toward the monster below her.

It hit with enough force to send Kat tumbling through the sky.  Fire and hot air assaulted her, singing her hair as it sought to overwhelm the enchantments on her armor.  Then, a second later it was gone, leaving a mushroom cloud flickering with mana infused lightning in its wake.

A glance downward revealed that the monster was dead.  It wasn’t the first time their team had fought a sand lion, but that didn’t make the fights all that much easier.  The monsters could submerge themselves underground, attacking with nothing but spike shooting tentacles unless someone managed to draw them to the surface.  That meant that someone had to serve as bait, something that Kat was unfortunately well suited for.

Kat let herself begin to float back toward the ground as a tall, thin bipedal avian with two sets of wings on his back skidded down a dune toward the smoking and still sparking crater left by the meteor.  He reached out with a taloned and feather covered hand, letting a purple glow creep down it before shooting out like a series of threads into the wreckage.  A second later, the alien relaxed.

“Clear!”  He called out in a high-pitched, whistling voice.

Two more of the bird creatures clambered over the rise, both wearing flowing robes and wielding staves covered in intricate carvings and gently glowing jewels.  The one on the right, Kat wracked her mind to remember her name, the specific sequence of syllables eluded her, shivered slightly, almost all of her mana gone after summoning the spell they’d used to kill the sand lion.

Klitta.  That’s what they called her.  Her actual name took about five seconds to pronounce, and a human mouth couldn’t handle it, but Klitta was close enough.

Kaleek and Dorrik wandered over as well, watching as the alien psi user coated himself in purple light before jumping into the hole left by the meteor.  Kat landed next to the rest of the party, nodding respectfully at the rest of the party before speaking up.

“That spell impresses me every time I see it.  I doubt there are many things at our level that can actually survive a hit from it.  Maybe a dedicated warrior, but I’m pretty sure it would turn me into paste.”

The bird-person’s feathers fluffed out slightly in their equivalent of a smile.

“I doubt that I could hit you Kat,” she replied, her voice as high pitched and airy as the wings behind her extended slightly.  “Arcane Meteor is a silver tier spell, but all of us are only level 18.  Casting it takes almost twenty seconds and all of my mana.  Unless I have multiple people defending me and distracting enemies, it is worse than useless.  I light up like a supernova to anything that can sense danger, and I’m completely unable to defend myself during the entire casting time.  It’s basically an invitation for opponents to kill me.”

“I still wouldn’t mind learning a spell like that,” Kat replied, keeping an eye on their final new companion as the man hopped down into the still steaming gullet of the sand lion.  “Things are a bit hectic back home and the ability to blow up an armored vehicle without having to call in backup would solve a lot of problems, rush hour traffic in Chiwaukee being one of them.”

Kaleek snorted, a hand darting up to cover his muzzle.  Dorrik on the other hand just cocked his head to the side, crest fluttering in confusion.

“But Miss Kat,” Dorrik began, confusion clouding his face.  “You don’t have to deal with traffic.  Your motorcade uses hover technology and flies over the streets.  More than that, I am sure that I’ve heard your security detail use loudspeakers to warn ordinary drivers away upon threat of ‘sudden immolation with extreme prejudice.”

“Say what you will about the 3445, but they have the right attitude toward aggressively merging onto the highway,” she replied, a touch wistfully.  “If you’d ever tried driving through that traffic on the ground, you’d probably take the same approach.  Plus, I won’t always have a motorcade.  I need to be able to be proactive and handle things like this on my own.”

“Found it!” A high pitched voice called out from the crater.  A second later, the bird warrior climbed out, his wings beating to give him a little extra lift.  Already the sand around the hole was freezing into glass, plinking quietly while it cooled.

“One spell stone of Earthen Embrace,” he continued happily, jogging over toward the rest of the group, casually tossing it to the spellcaster that had just dropped the Arcane Meteor on the sand lion as soon as he arrived.  “See?  I told you that having Klitta deliver the killing blow would influence the rewards from the tower.  No matter how many stores we checked, there was only a small selection of third tier spells.  I swear it would’ve taken us a couple months of searching without your team’s help.”

“I’m glad we could help,” Dorrik replied, crest fluttering gently, “ultimately, I’m sure that a store on the twenty first floor would have been able to provide what you needed.  It is another community focused floor and the drop rates for iron and silver tier spells increase along with level.”

“Nonsense,” the third bird alien cut in.  “We need Earthen Embrace if we want to have real chance at making it to and beyond the twenty first level.  The three of us have managed to defeat a grand total of one silver dungeon and it almost ended all of us.  We barely got out of it before waking up the next morning and the boss managed to rip all of my wings off.  Klitta only manage to survive because Marse put her in status.  Iron and wood tier dungeons are still an option, but with each one we’ll fall a little bit behind the power curve.  At some point, those individual attribute points and perks that we could’ve earned at higher difficulties are going to come back to bite us.”

“About that,” Kaleek began, only for the final alien to speak up.

“Yes, you wanted the location of that silver-tier dungeon we found in exchange for your help with the sand lions.  You more than fulfilled your part of the bargain, so we’re happy to do our share.  It’s five leagues west and two north of Windshell Village.  There’s a heavily alkali lake in the middle of the dunes with a rock face to the north.  We fought a nest of rock scorpions there so you should be ready.  If you dive into the lake, it will deal damage to you without special protections, but there is a cave under the rocks.  If you climb up into it there should be some fresh air and the dungeon portal.”

“What about the dungeon itself?”  Kat asked.  “What can we expect?”

“Open skies,” the psi user replied.  “Each room is a floating square of rocks and flying enemies dive bomb you.  You should be fine Kat because you can fly, but the monsters will try to knock everyone else off.  Having ranged weapons and a way to bolt yourself down is a must.  The final boss is fought in free fall.  There’s only a ten by ten pace square of ground with the dungeon altar on it.  For the rest of the fight you’re just plummeting endlessly while trying to fight a giant floating jellyfish.  If you can’t fly or glide, you’re probably in for a bad time.”

“Are you really planning on raiding only silver dungeons?”  Marse, the third of the aliens, asked.  “Right now we’re only trying to hit dungeons within a one settlement range around where we entered the floor, and even that is tough.  The silver tier almost killed us, but even iron tiers are getting harder and harder.  At some point, we’re probably going to just finish off with the wood tiers before climbing up to the next floor.”

Kat glanced at Dorrik, but the lokkel’s face was impassive.  Kaleek shrugged, and that was all the permission that she needed to respond.

“We’re trying to fill our full allotment of dungeons with the highest tier possible on each level.  We haven’t missed one yet, but the silver dungeons are rare enough that we’ve had to travel a lot.  Our starting settlement had about three publicly known silver dungeons around it so we cleared those out.  Right now we’re on our way to Windshell Village to try and find more silver dungeons.  Running into the three of you and getting the location for a hidden dungeon was just a bonus.”

Marse whistled, her feathers puffing up in what Kat could only assume was some expression of astonishment or respect.

“A dozen dungeons per level has been our limit,” the bird alien replied.  “Sometimes one more, but there are only so many dungeons near each settlement.  After a certain point, your only options are to travel halfway across the dreamscape looking for new challenges, or to ascend a level.  Really, our goal is just to reach twenty four.  At that point, our race considers us to be elites and we’re eligible for elected office and senior management positions.  Anything beyond that is just a bonus.”

“Does that mean that the three of you have been doing iron-tier dungeons since level six?” Klitta asked.  “Those are tough right now.  I can hardly imagine how much the difficulty must’ve jumped when you first reached the sixth level.”

“You get used to it,” Kaleek said, inspecting some dents the sand lion’s spikes had left in his armor.  “I’m not sure our goals have an actual end point.  Personally?  I’m mostly just living in the moment.  I like getting stronger and it’s fun to clear out dungeons.  No need to overthink things beyond that.  Silver tier dungeons are more of a challenge and they make me stronger the fastest.  That’s what makes them fun.”

Kat shuddered, thinking of the last two ‘fun’ dungeons they’d gone through.  One had rooms where mana costs tripled, reducing the usefulness of area of effect spells and making the numerous low hit point monsters a real menace.  The other had corridors of actual void.  Kat would be fine without having to feel her blood literally boiling and expanding in its veins as she fought off opponents ever again.

The difficulty hike between iron and silver was about twice as severe as the jump from wood to iron, but the benefits were just as stark.  Rather than one attribute point and a sprinkling of bonuses to her mana, hit points and stamina, she got two attribute points or an upgrade to a maxed out ability.

At first she’d wondered if that was actually an upgrade, after all the growth of her resource pools had been a bit higher at iron-tier.  An increase to endurance would still help her stamina, but only by a point.  Still, the overall improvement in her situational awareness, movement, and the power of her spells more than made up for the lower gains.

Kat didn’t run low on hit points, mana or stamina all that often lately, and given her teams’ increased usage of potions, enchanted meals, and oils, actually hitting empty seemed unlikely.  Compared to that, doubling the rate that her agility and reflexes were growing was a very welcome trade off.

“Different types enjoy different things I suppose,” Klikka said tiredly, giving Kaleek a slightly worried look.  “Regardless of your unique proclivities, thank you for your help.  It probably would’ve taken us weeks to grab a spell stone for Earthen Embrace.  I am more than satisfied with the trade.  Now, given the local time, I think our team is ready to wake up, but once again it was good working with the three of you.”

Kat nodded, and one by one their avian companions disappeared in columns of flickering rainbow lights.  Finally, once they were alone again, she relaxed slightly.  Their temporary allies had seemed to be decent sorts, but it wasn’t like there was law enforcement this deep into the tower.  Even if everything turned out to be safe, it rubbed her the wrong way to let a spellcaster stand still and gather a spell as powerful as Arcane Meteor within fifty paces of her without trying to interfere.  You just never knew when someone might try to betray you.

“Maybe Belle’s rubbing off on me more than I’m rubbing off on her,” Kat muttered, chuckling lightly.

“Miss Belle?”  Dorrik asked brightly.  “I have been meaning to talk to her again.  I had some more ideas about Chrome Cowboys that I wanted to share with her, but I feel we must all discuss the stallesp’s next move.”

Kat froze, a frown finding its way onto her face before she could smother it.

“What about their next move?”  She questioned.  “Outside of quietly supporting Millennium, I thought that they were basically done and gone.”

“I don’t know how quiet their support is,” Kaleek interjected with a drawl.  “From what you’ve said about the brain in the stomach robot guy, that seems like a pretty explicit attempt to circumvent the rules on non-interference.”

“I’ve lodged a complaint and the public stallesp explanation was that some of their agents stopped responding once their government was formally kicked off Earth,” Dorrik replied.  “I do not think they’re being truthful, especially given the reports that the stallesp were still collaborating with their human allies in the tower.  Further investigation has turned up some good news on that front.”

“Oh?” Kat asked, cocking her head slightly.

“It appears that one of the stallesp that Mr. Jackson has been climbing the tower with has disappeared,” Dorrik responded.  “Currently he appears to be trapped on the twenty second floor.  I don’t know how long it will take for him to find a replacement, but for now, we have a little bit of time before he can attempt an ascension.”

“Doesn’t feel like enough breathing room to me,” Kaleek grunted.  “I know we’re going as fast as we can, but hitting all silver dungeons is going to take months.  There are maybe only three around each settlement and then we have to move on.  We should have Kat leveled up and ready to go within a year if we hurry, but the real question is whether or not she has a year.  Even if the stallesp are trying to be cagey about things, I suspect they’ll be able to find this Jackson guy a replacement before then.”

Dorrik shuffled his feet, looking straight down for a second.  His crest fell flush to the back of his head in what Kat swore looked like embarrassment.

“Maybe not,” the lokkel said.  “It seems that the constant stallesp complaints have gotten somewhere.  Clan Ahn and our allies have done our best, but despite everything the stallesp have their supporters as well.  Recently there was a vote that we lost regarding reparations to your world.”

Kat sighed, reaching up to run her fingers through her sandy hair.

“This is going to make me angry isn’t it?”  She asked.

“Maybe,” Dorrik replied.  “I suspect that you will certainly find it annoying.”

“Out with it then,” she responded.  “Whatever happened, it happened.  Dancing around the issue isn’t going to change that.”

“Fine,” Dorrik said, crest flat against the back of his head.  “The stallesp have alleged that my clan is trying to monopolize Earth’s resources.  While it’s clear that this is false, some members of the Consensus were quick to forget their crimes.  They received permission to send a representative to Earth.  Ostensibly, this person is to observe and negotiate the conditions and format of the reparation payments owed to your people.  Practically?  I fully expect them to interfere with your growth and racial ascension.”

“I’m going to have to meet with this person aren’t I?  Kat asked with growing dread.

Dorrik nodded, and a sudden thought popped into her head, forcing her to blurt out a horrified follow up.  “I’m going to have to be polite to this person aren’t I?”

This time, Dorrik’s nod was accompanied by a grin from Kaleek.

Kat shook her head.  She had to focus on the tower.  She didn’t have time for diplomatic nonsense, and in all honesty, she wasn’t good at it anyway.  Her skill set was more direct.  She could manage her people and keep her labs on track, and she could kill folks that were becoming a problem.

“Sounds like a Belle problem,” She said smugly.

Sometimes it was best to stick to your strengths.

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