Story Concept Pt3

 

Chapter 16 - A Night in Jail

 

The holding cell was clean and dry, at least. They didn’t take my armor or possessions because I was a guest of Orianna, and I got an entire cell to myself. Helga, the blacksmith, was taken and put somewhere else. I had been pacing for a while now. This cell couldn’t hold me, and I knew that, but creating more waves seemed unhelpful. I couldn’t help but think of what was to come. I’d barely been in the city for two days, and I was on the verge of being an outcasted already. 

The door opened, pulling me from hours of overthinking and pacing. I heard Orianna’s voice thanking one of the guards just out of sight. I had one single guard sitting just outside the metal door beyond the bars. The walls were dark, plain stone. The cell wasn’t anything to write home about, either. It swung open and Orianna came in with a slight limp in her stride.

“Valerie,” she stood just outside the bars. “I’m here to finish the memory walk.”

“Right, yeah. The memory walk. You want to sit in here, or what?”

“Haha, no. Come with me,” Orianna unlocked the cell door with a wave of her hand and beckoned me through. 

“Sure,” I said. What else could I say? I definitely didn’t want to be cursed now, when everything was already not in my favor. I don’t know if anyone was injured, or worse, when the branches fall. Then there was the property damage and cleanup.

We passes a few bleak passages lined with barred cells, unlike my solitary cell, before we reached a small break room. It had a small table with four chairs, a deck of cards, and 12 lockers on the far wall. Orianna sat and motioned for me to do the same.

“Are you ready?”

“Am I ready? Are you ready? You don’t look like you’ve recovered, are you sure you want to do this right now?”

“The council is considering banishing you from the city, and this is the last opportunity you have to clear your name, and for me to finish the memory walk in the safety of the city,” Orianna explained.

“Oh, right. Because of the branch thing?”

“There’s more to it than that, but yes, the branch thing. Not to mention the tavern,” Orianna pointed out.

“Alright, I get it,” I sighed. “Bad luck, I guess.”

“That’s incredibly odd, considering how high your luck stat is, but anyway, back to the task at hand. Focus on what happened after your encounter with the Giga Mecharex.”

I nodded and closed my eyes, thinking of the week I spend bedridden, half of which I was barely awake for. The awful crunchy monster granola had to eat, the lukewarm room temperature water I was refused to drink because he didn’t even take the time to clean the bowl. Splash, with its ability to create clean water from nothing, wasn’t as useless as I’d originally thought. It even worked as a portable shower, albeit cold. 

More memories of my time here flashed before my eyes. Testing my new abilities, the battle with Draconis and the month I spent wandering and avoiding Dragons, learning and surviving in the wilderness, burying the case I stole from Draconis and couldn’t find again. After that, I spent a lot of that time just trying to unwind, relax, and enjoy my freedom, but I couldn’t get comfortable. All I could think about was the Draconis, and that all changed when I overheard the conversation about potential monster allies in the Forbidden Zone.

The rest all happened within the last couple of days. Saving the Orc, fighting the Orc, coming to the city, my goblin encounter, all fresh memories. 

Orianna opened her eyes with a tensed gasp, then relaxed. “I hate jump scares,” she took another deep breath and released it slowly.

“The Silvercat I encountered earlier?” I asked.

“Yeah, but it’s odd. For you, they appear to be orange and very easy to spot,” Orianna said.

“It’s not that way for you?”

“To me? They’re an off-lime green, but I think we see colors just a little differently. They might as well be invisible to the Dragons,” Orianna said.

“In my world, we had cats like them and they were orange to us humans but other animals saw them as green,” I replied. “Something about the number of color pigment cone things in your eyes and the range of colors you can see.”

“I see, well that is very interesting to note. What else is interesting is that you unintentionally sabotaged the entire town by trying to be helpful. Part of the blame is on Helga, for not understanding the danger of using power as strong as yours, without fully explaining how it works and gauging your mana levels first.”

“What do you mean sabotage?”

“Helga’s enchantment destroyed the upper canopy near the grotto, and not just a little. Discharging all that power at once created a very noticeable sphere of missing greenery. On top of that, there’s already been a Dragon patrol sighted above the canopy before night fell.”

“Damn,” I slumped back in my chair. “So the Dragons know where we are?” 

That changed things for me a little. There was no way in hell I was going to be captured again. The wheels in my mind spun and I thought of a thousand ways to take the fight to the Dragons, zoning out a little before Orianna caught my attention again.”

“That’s not entirely accurate. They don’t know our exact location, however, they will be keen to investigate this specific area of the forest now. Even if it were a stray monster battle that caused it, they’d want to capture them.”

“But I thought the Silvercats deterred them?”

“On a wide scale, yes. A full invasion of the forest would prove incredibly difficult. But sectioning off one part of the forest? Not as hard. The older Giga Mecharex you encountered can’t traverse the entire forest, but if they know exactly where to drop him, there’s going to be trouble. The forest is massive, and our best defense was that we could have been anywhere.” Orianna paused, then continued. “And that’s not all.  Do you know about the dust bowl?” Orianna asked.

“No, I don’t know about a dust bowl,” I replied.

“There used to be an underwater Gnome stronghold in an area known as the Grand Basin. Dragons might be powerful, but they’re not very powerful in the water. However, Tyrannus mustered the firepower to burn the entire lake, fortress and all,” Orianna said. “It’s been bone dry ever since.”

“So, he could turn this whole area into ash, then,” I was taking that in. I knew he was powerful, but I thought the Giga Mecharex was the real threat. Maybe I was wrong. “I’m surprised they don’t just burn down the entire forest.”

“The Dragons understand that the trees are an essential part of their ecosystem, and this is the largest forest in the land,” Orianna said. 

I changed the subject abruptly, asking “Do you know where Tyrannus’s office is? The one where I you know, met your brother? Is it close to the city?”

Orianna stared at me for a solid thirty seconds, making intense eye contact the entire time. She held out her hand and a scroll popped into existence and she unrolled it. “Should you be banished this map might be useful to you.” Orianna unrolled the map and pointed to the large green forested section of the continent. Most of the map was a single continent, with a few outlier islands and one big ocean.

From the spot in the forest, she traced a line to the valley several inches away with a red building symbol. “The capital city,” she said. “The Ruby Tower is where Tyrannus spends the majority of his time and keeps all of his monsters for battle. They hold all the big tournaments there.”

I nodded. “Alright, how far is that? How fast could a Dragon travel here?”

“Probably less than a day. If you’re going to do something reckless, at least wait for the council’s decision. I know you were only helping Helga, and I’m sure they will see reason,” Orianna said, but she didn’t look too sure of herself. “Probably,” she added.

Orianna left, and I waited a whole two minutes before I created a water clone. My rank for the skill had increased to three, and they were no longer translucent water bodies that had my shape. They looked exactly like me, but they couldn’t speak. I wasn’t going to wait around and get banished. Screw that. If I wasn’t here to banish, they’d have to wait until I got back, and if I did something incredibly useful, maybe they wouldn’t. I didn’t have a lot of knowledge about the Dragons, but I did know the inside of his office and where he kept his stronger prisoners. 

A thousand red flags screamed at me, but I had made up my mind. I was going to strike first.

“Wait here, don’t do anything weird,” I told the clone, then I made a break for it. I’d seen the exit on my way in, and my Vapor Sense let me know that there were no guards around the room or surrounding hallways. It was all clear up to the front door, where two guards stood, one on either side of the entrance. There was also a secretary in the front room. I didn’t want to make a scene this time, so I opted for another route. 

I took the back corridor, which led to the back of the building and I sensed a half-open window. I climbed through it easily without making a noise. Being small did have its uses sometimes. I paused outside the window, looking over the town and back into the building. 

I’m going to fix this. I was supposed to be ending the Dragon threat, not increasing it. I floated off the ground and made my resolve. This was just another problem to solve, and I was going to use violence as a solution. 

 

Notice: Your Resolve trait has advanced to the Grit trait! True determination guides your spirit! Your non-Spirit attributes are increased by a portion of your Spirit. This bonus is tripled during a Skill Clash. 

 

I checked the bonus. It still looked like it was increasing my stats by ten percent of my total Spirit. What exactly is a Skill Clash? The question was directed at my personal AI search engine that answered when it wanted to. Or when it could, I supposed. I still didn’t actually know much about how to system actually worked.

“A Skill Clash occurs when skills of a similar nature collide. The stronger skill is the one that overrides the other, barring other factors,” the voice stated plainly.

 

I took one last look at the city and stopped by the blacksmith to pick up those enchanted blades I’d helped enchant before departing into the open sky. I was careful to avoid detection by the city folk and from the prowling Silverfang. I would not be caught off guard again by these bright orange fluffballs. When I was above the trees, I examined the swords closely.

Angeknight Sword (Replica), melee weapon, master       The replica of Angeknight’s sword, as witnessed by the blacksmith Helga Ironfist. Deals 3071 - 6124 damage, half Slashing, half Light.

I thought I was hallucinating at first, seeing such high numbers. Thinking about it and doing the math, it made sense. My Body stat was high, and I got a huge boost to sword damage with my Swordsman trait. The weapons were also an incredibly high quality craftsmanship, much more so than my Shape Metal ability.

Ahead the silhouette of a Black Dragon loomed. I barely saw it, I sensed it first. She didn’t appear to see me either. And she never would.

 

Your Angeknight Sword deals 5766 slashing and light damage to Dragon!

Your Angeknight Sword heals 4012 slashing and light damage to Dragon!

You have felled Dragon! You gain 2589 XP! 

Notice: You have stored Dragonforce that must be used to fuse skills! If you do not fuse them within twenty-four hours, the power will release automatically and your skills will randomly fuse.

 

I slashed in an X pattern, coming up from the tree tops at high speed and catching the Dragon from beneath. The blades felt no resistance against the scales, cutting easily through and sending chunks of Dragon in all directions. I paused and watched the four pieces descend to the darkness of the trees. The black mist rose back and swirled around me, filling me with feelings of surprise

The Ruby Tower was easy enough to spot from an incredible distance. It rose up out of the valley like a beacon. One Dragon was perched on the very top of the spire. Hard to tell whether he was sleeping or not from this distance because I hadn’t seen him move yet. I arrived in the early part of the morning under the cover of the fog while the sky was dreary and the sun barely threatened to shine through. 

My Vapor Sense was drastically better in the mist that hung in the air around the valley, making it easy to avoid everything after the Black Dragon. I perched a couple of hundred meters away in a tree at the top of the valley, just out of the mist.

The city of Dragons spanned the entire valley, up and down. There were massive metallic domes and towers, stone buildings carved into either side of the valley, and one gigantic stadium-looking building. The Ruby Tower rose from there, in the heart of the city. Then on one side of the valley was the most horrendous sight, a massive carved head of Tyrannus himself. 

I checked my menu and looked at the Shatter skill. I looked at the rock head of Tyrannus, intending to cause the thing to explode if I could. Was the rock too big? Was my mana strong enough? Was it worth the risk? Definitely. Perhaps even a worthy distraction if I could get it to fall. 

 

“Notice: You are out of range for Shatter,” the voice in my head spoke up.

 

And what is the range on Shatter? 

 

“The range of Shatter at your skill level and mana is 90 meters, alternatively, by focusing on the skill in your menu you can see additional information such as range and damage type.”

If I got to the tower, it was probably within range. There was a lot of sky traffic here, with Dragons openly flying from one destination to the next. The tower was much higher than the normal hubbub, but I would also be in plain sight. The mists didn’t rise in the valley, but rather sunk to the bottom and obscured the ground. I thought about coming straight down from the sky, but that felt obvious as well. What I really needed was a stealth skill. Maybe the mists would be enough to cover my approach to the tower if I flew low enough. I had to try. I’d come this far, and I wasn’t one to just give up.

So I did. I flew swiftly and silently, ducking through huge swaths of mist. I could sense which parts were thicker, so I stuck to those routes. I held my breath as I passed under a large shadow, before landing near the base of the tower. There were no Dragons coming close to the tower. I shot straight up the side of the tower at a steady pace, hoping I would go unnoticed, and unnoticed I went. I was the size of a fly to them, after all.

I tore off a piece of the tower to see what I was dealing with and if it would be hard to break through after my distraction plan.

 

Scrap of Steelium, Material, Uncommon        A small piece of Steelium. It has a durability rating of 800.

 

OK, voice in my head, what’s a durability rating mean?”

 

“Durability rating is how much damage the material can sustain before breaking,” she replied.

 

So what you’re saying is that I can break it. Nice. But first, the distraction. I reached out my hand and focused on the big stupid stone face of the Dragon. 

 

You have activated Shatter! Dragon Monument takes 501 points of force damage!

I was mildly disappointed. My mana damage wasn’t nearly as good as my physical damage. It was barely a scratch. I tried again, and again, each exploding like pimples on Tyrannus’s face in a pattern straight down the center.

 

You have activated Shatter! Dragon Monument takes 456 points of force damage!

You have activated Shatter! Dragon Monument takes 529 points of force damage!

You have activated Shatter! Dragon Monument takes 475 points of force damage!

 

Now we're getting somewhere. Bits of stone flecked off, and the echoing of the blasts were drawing attention. The Dragons looked around in confusion and it filled me with confidence and glee. 

 

Notice, Shatter has improved from Rank 1 to Rank 2!

You have activated Shatter! Dragon Monument takes 575 points of force damage!

 

The last one cracked the entire face in two, and my uses of Shatter had been depleted. I’d get one back per hour. One-half of the face broke apart and slid clean off the side of the cliff, taking an enormous amount of debris with it. I was excited. It worked! Something finally worked! The buildings below were crushed instantly. A dust cloud kicked up and mingled with the mists. Clouds upon clouds of dust swept through the city from the force of the impact, covering every building, street, and Dragon in debris. 

The city was abuzz now, and my hunter trait had activated. Because I caused the explosions, the Dragons caught in the drop area counted as being injured and felled by me. The entire valley was quickly filling with dust, and more rocks and debris fell to the city below.

 

Your Rockslide deals 8,988 damage to Dragon! 

You have felled a Dragon! You gain 25,312 experience! Base 16,875 plus 8,437 from Exponential Growth!

Your Rockslide deals 12,675 damage to Great Dragon! 

You have felled a Great Dragon! You gain 49,431 experience! Base 32,954 plus 16,477 from Exponential Growth!

 

There were five more casualties, but they were all weaker and added up to only another 7000 experience all together. There were numerous injured.

Notice: Shatter increased from Rank 2 to Rank 4!

You have gained 11 levels! You are now level 66!

Notice: You have stored Dragonforce that must be used to fuse skills! If you don not fuse them within twenty-four hours, the power will release automatically and your skills will randomly fuse.

 

Vitality +119 Body +55 Mind +39 Magic +76 Spirit +96 Luck +62 You have learned the Rock Disc skill! You can catapult a stone disc at high speed using mana for  Chance to dismember! (5%) You have learned the Lightforce Grenade skill! You can unleash a ball of concentrated light that explodes on impact in area of effect! (20m) You have gained the Giant Slayer trait! You are adept at defeating those larger than yourself.  You deal more damage the bigger a target is compared to you to a maximum of 50%

 

Fusions? I did remember Orianna mentioning I’d be able to choose my skill fusions with this new mark. What the hell was a Great Dragon?

 

“A Great Dragon is a Dragon that has lived for more than 250 years,” the voice in my head replied. 

Makes enough sense, sure. The new skills seemed useful, but I wasn’t sure I had time to open my menu and fuse skills, but it could help me with whatever was waiting inside the tower. The city below was a dusty mess. I couldn’t see a damn thing with my eyes, but my Vapor Sense let me know that there were no Dragons near me. Even the one perched on the roof had left to check out the disturbance.

Fuck it. This might be my last chance to do anything, ever. I opened my menu to look at my options. The moment I opened my Traits tab I was prompted with a translucent blue box asking if I wanted to fuse traits, or wait. I focused on the wait button. I wanted more time to think about my traits because it seemed like a mixed bag and I already had practice with my current set of traits. I also didn’t want it to randomly change my Sheer Force trait, so I definitely had to remember to do it later. I flipped to the skills tab and pressed [Yes] to fuse.

 

Rock Disc and Radiant Bolt have fused to become Stonelaser Discus! This laser-edged stone disc easily slices through much, much more. Chance to dismember (25%)

 

That seemed nice. I hadn’t even used them yet, so I wasn’t attached at all. As soon as it finished, the prompt appeared again, asking if I wanted to fuse another skill. [Yes]

 

I didn’t really know what to pick. Nothing jumped out at me. I knew for sure there were a lot of skills I didn’t want to lose, and some I hadn’t even tried yet. I chose two. One new, Lightforce Barrier, and one I liked, Shadow Strangle. I already had Shadow Limb and Stun Web for locking down targets. Light and Dark would be an interesting mix.

 

Lightforce Barrier and Shadow Strangle have fused to become Chaos Blossom! Wrap a creature in chaos energy and see what happens. 

Notice: You have developed the Element: Chaos trait! Your inner light and darkness have mingled and become something new.

 

That was almost kind of expected, I thought. I didn’t really know what chaos could do, because focusing on the skill itself revealed nothing, and the voice didn’t give me anything about it.

 I had one more set of skills to fuse, which means I had roughly five traits to fuse together within the next 24 hours since I had killed eight Dragons total and three were skill fusions. If I kept at it this rate, I wouldn’t have many skills and traits left. I really needed to put my One from All trait to use or risk losing my best abilities. That would have to wait, though.

  The last two skills I fused were Rain Armor and Antitoxin, and they came out better than I expected.

 

Rain Armor and Antitoxin have fused to become Alkaline Armor! Passively heals you and cures all poisons and diseases affecting you! (20% of Mana)

 A sudden feeling of dread as a huge shadow passed overheard. It was a dread I recognized. Tyrannus! I held my breath as he passed over, toward where his facial monument had fallen. I watched him swoop beneath the dust storm and out of sight. It was time.