The Land: Forging (Chaos Seeds Book 2) (32 page)

“
Brighter than Light, blacker than Dark, stronger than Earth, faster than Air, deeper than Water, hotter than Fire, more cherished than Life, more inevitable than Death.”

Something about it the inscription tickled his memory. It was like hearing a familiar
song
but in another language. He repeated the inscription to himself
silently and thought about how the riddle
made no sense. Nothing was brighter than light! Nothing was hotter than fire. Nothing was more inevitable
than…
Richter’s eyebrows rose, and he said, “Nothing.”

As soon as he finished speaking that one word, the door began breaking apart. A piece fell
off
but did not strike the ground. It bent down the middle, and the two halves began opening and closing. Before he knew it, a red butterfly was flapping its wings. A cascade of red fell away from the door and the four comrades were surrounded by a maelstrom of red flapping wings. It was like being surrounded by every scarlet leaf of autumn or being gently cocooned in the softest red silk. As quickly as it began, the wonderful storm of butterflies ended when they all fell to the ground at once. The red door was gone, leaving the way clear.

“I think these are red monarchs,” Sion said in awe. “I recognize them from a picture in mother’s library.”

“Have they been absent from The Land for centuries too,” Richter asked.

“No, but they are from a different plane. They are only supposed to exist in abyssal realms. Help me collect them.”

The four reached down and collected all of the fallen butterflies, handing them to Richter for storage. Then they assumed the same formation as before, Futen leading with Richter several yards behind and Yoshi bringing up the rear. The tunnel beyond the red door looked like it had been hewn from solid red rock. The walls were irregular and walking required some balance. A couple hundred yards into the tunnel, Richter started to smell water. Soon he
could hear a distant roar. The tunnel opened into a large rectangular cavern. The roar was made by what Richter assumed was a waterfall at the far end. Unfortunately, the intensity of Futen’s light was not enough to illuminate the entire room. The party stood on a ledge that looked out over an underground lake. They stood only a few feet above the waterline. In the distance Richter could just make out a small rocky island. An ornate chest was sitting in the middle of it. What caught his eye were the rocks walls. Large clear crystals were periodically embedded into the stone.

“Okay, so what’s the catch,” Richter asked. No one had anything helpful to say. Futen intensified his light at Richter’s request, but they could still barely see past the island. Richter cast
Far Light
towards the end of the room. The ball of light didn’t make it far. The luminous white sphere traveled less than twenty feet when one of the crystals on the wall flashed. A bolt of red lightning streaked from the crystal towards the ball of light and impacted it with a loud
zzzt
and resulting boom!

“Hehehe,” Richter said nervously. He looked around at his comrades, and saw that all of them were staring at the crystal with their mouths slightly open. Daniella had taken an involuntary step backwards. Richter looked around, ill at ease, but no other bolts of red death seemed to be forth coming. Shaking his head and exhaling solidly, he started to work the problem. If there was one thing he remembered from his semester as an engineering major, it was that where most people saw problems, engineers looked for solutions. Richter had always thought it was good advice in any walk of life.

He took out his wand again,
but didn’t find any script on the ground or walls. When he shined it
over the water
though, a pale sheet of white could be seen completely crossing the room perpendicular to the direction Richter was facing. It extended from the water to the ceiling. The sheet was in line with the first crystal on the wall, and perpendicular to the length of the room. When Richter turned off the wand off again, all he saw was empty space.

“Sion, fire an arrow.” The sprite nocked and fired towards the island. The arrow flew straight, and as soon as it passed the white sheet, another red light flared in the jewel. Immediately, a bolt of red lightning shot from the crystal and struck the arrow dead on. All that was left was ash that fell down to sprinkle on top of the water.

Richter shook his head. There had to be a way across the water. “Sion, try to hit one of the crystals.”

The sprite took careful aim
and shot at the closest crystal. The lightning flashed and the arrow was destroyed just before impact.

Richter looked at the remnant, “Futen, could you withstand those lightning strikes?”

“It might not destroy me, my Lord, but there is a good chance that it would disable me. You would have to retrieve me, and I would not revive until I was brought back to the Great Seal.”

“Even if you were invisible?”

“I cannot say, my Lord. I will try if you order it.”

The risk was way too big, Richter thought. Futen was vital to the running of the village. He couldn’t risk the remnant on the off chance that it might work out. Richter racked his brain, and then said, “Sion, can you shoot an arrow so it goes under the water right before it would cross the first crystal?”

Sion just gave a self-assured
smile, then drew and fired. The arrow struck the water and continued on for a few more feet. Even though it crossed the plane of the crystal, there was no discharge. Not initially anyway. When the arrow bobbed back to the surface, it crossed the plane of another crystal, and red lightning shot down destroying it. Okay, Richter thought, I guess this means that they would be safe as long as they were under the water.

He decided to bring more light to bear on the situation. He shot multiple balls of light with his
Far Light
spell. Richter was careful not to cross the magical white plane of the crystals. Soon, there was a shining archway made from little balls of light. Now the entire room could be seen clearly. The rocky island in the middle of the cavern was several meters long. There didn’t seem to be any crystals in line with the isle. As long as he swam just a bit past the tip of the rock, he should be able to climb up safely. This
was,
of course, all contingent on his belief that the crystals only fired when something passed directly in front of them. If they started to cover an arc of space, he was totally dead.

“So all we need to do is swim under the water until we reach the island. It’s just… about a hundred, a hundred fifty yards… yeah…,” Richter said. He
checked Sion’s status.

Sion had moved up three levels! It was probably because of the 20,000 experience bonus from planting the Quickening. If Richter’s memory was
right,
though, it looked like Sion had invested a couple points into Constitution and Intelligence and… one point into Charisma? Maybe that’s why he wasn’t such a pain in the neck anymore, he thought. Sion had obviously
been practicing his Air magic. What had happened with his affinities though? They were way higher than before!

“Sion,” Richter said in shock, “When did your affinities get so much higher?”

The sprite smiled, “Don’t you remember the Quickening? You know, giant silver tree, white leaves, normally only seen on higher planes of existence.” Seeing Richter’s glare, he chuckled. “Well ever since then, my affinities have been higher!”

Richter nodded, he remembered reading a prompt that everyone present at the planting would have higher affinities. He had just forgotten after all of the other momentous things that had happened. Either way, he was happy for his Companion! The main reason that Richter had checked Sion’s status page, was to see the sprite’s Agility and Endurance. Those seemed to be the main traits that swimming underwater for a prolonged period would entail. Sion’s stats were lower than Richter’s however, though. Richter checked with Daniella and Yoshi for their stats. Daniella numbers were well lower than his, and while Yoshi’s endurance was higher, the adept’s Agility was lower proportionally.

“Well, that leaves me,” he said. He explained what he had figured out about swimming underwater, and they had all made the same natural conclusion. Yoshi argued that he would make the swim, but even if their stats had been equal, Richter would have gone instead. He was immortal, after all.

He took off almost all of his armor and clothes, not wanting the drag. Outside of the practical concerns of swimming encumbered, his light armor imposed a 3% penalty on his movement speed per piece. The only thing he kept on were his greaves. They provided a 10%
boost to movement speed, so by his reasoning he should still get 7% bump. That might be the difference between life and death.

Upon Yoshi’s suggestion, he attached the sheath of his glass dagger to his thigh with a two thin lengths of cloth. He tied his wand to the other leg. He then tried to leave his Bag of Holding, but just couldn’t for some reason. He had never actually been too far from it since he bought it from Hafiz, so this had never been an issue before. He tried to hand it to Daniella, but again he couldn’t bring himself to do it. A prompt showed up.

It seems you are trying to leave behind a Soul Bound item: Bag of Holding. Do you wish to relinquish ownership? Yes or No?

“NO,” Richter said. He hadn’t even meant to speak aloud; it was just a visceral reaction. The Bag was one of his most precious possessions. He selected ‘No’ on the prompt. Another appeared.

You have a Companion nearby. If you choose to leave your item with your
Companion,
they will be able to access your inventory. Would you like to leave your Bag of Holding with your Companion? Yes or No?

That sounds better, he thought. He selected ‘Yes’ and handed the Bag to Sion.

*
Stay here
*, he thought to Alma. He projected an image of the crystal, *
Danger!
*

The dragonling couldn’t speak in two-word sentences, but by the tone of her ‘Yes’, she was basically saying, *
No duh.
*

He walked to the water with only his legs covered and said, “Don’t act like you’re not impressed,” and then dove in. The water was freezing! He was glad Daniella had seen him
before
he had jumped in. He swam above the water until just shy of the first crystal, then took three breaths. The first was shallow, the second and third normal. With that last breath, he began his swim. His arms moved in a modified
breast stroke and his legs beat a strong,
steady dolphin kick. He didn’t rush. That was one of the most important things to know about swimming. Panic increased heart rate, which increased other autonomic processes, which increased oxygen consumption. If he ran out of air before he reached the island, then that would equal deep fried Richter. The other mistake people made when free swimming was to exhale underwater. It wasn’t just carbon dioxide
that leaked out, it was oxygen as well. Knowing these tips was why he had come in first, three years running in the swim competition at Camp Crystal Lake. Well, that, and all the mysterious
machete related deaths.

He just kept up the stroke watching the rock island get slowly closer. He tried not to think about what would happen if he broke the surface. Even if he ducked right back down that lightning would hit the water and… you guessed it, deep fried Richter. When he was thirty yards away from his goal, his stamina bar began to decrease. It was slow at first, but then it began to drop faster and faster. He could see the rock in front of him, but he was
starting
to get lightheaded and his limbs were getting sluggish. He wasn’t going to make it!

He flailed forward under the water in a panic. He was kicking forward in frantic bursts, struggling to reach the safety of the small spit of rock. Kick, stroke, kick, stroke, the green bar of his stamina was running on empty!