Kryos sucked in deep breaths as he deactivated Pressure Field, but he kept Singularity Stance active. He looked back at Tavan, then his eyes shifted over to the still-covered chest. But, his body was aching from the impact to his back. “You can heal me, right?”
“Yeah, that’s my job. Protecting also, but you took a wallop of a hit.” Tavan took a few steps over. “Let’s see . . . ah, okay, I only need to use this.” His hands glowed a deep, verdant green. “Okay, open wide.”
“Sorry, wha—” Kryos was cut off, as the moment his mouth opened to continue speaking, a stream of green flew from Tavan’s fingers into his mouth. It tasted like a mix of the purple berries his dad would harvest from a nearby cavern back in the Drakemount, and the sweet powder that his mom called sugar which was brought with them from their home before he was born.
The flavor vanished along with the stream as the green energy coursed down his gullet, almost against his will, and churned into his stomach before filling his whole body with a pleasant warmth. It alleviated the pain in his back, and the acid burns on his feet.
-----
HP: 132 / 150
-----
“That’ll do for now,” Tavan said.
Kryos rubbed his throat. “That was . . . odd.”
Leona hopped onto the dais as she sheathed her dagger she had called a rondel. “That’s his type of healing.”
“Indeed,” Tavan replied as he joined Leona at the chest. “I am a Biomancer. All of my healing has to do with the body’s natural functions and accelerating them. I just sped up your natural rate of healing massively, fueling it with my essence instead of your metabolism.”
Kryos just looked at him with confusion. “Huh?”
“Not much for book learning, eh?”
“No,” Kryos replied. “I did not go to school. My mom and dad taught me in the house. Numbers, letters, the like. I can read and write well, but I’m not versed in . . . whatever it was you were talking about.”
“Biology,” Tavan said with a smug grin. “Everyone has their own unique talents.”
His eyes flicked over to Leona, who was running her fingers along the edges of the chest. “I’m guessing you’re searching for traps?”
“Oh, I know there is one,” she replied. “I have a Skill called Hazard Sense that is Toggled. I can detect traps and other hidden threats. I didn’t pick up the statues, oddly enough.”
Tavan couched his rod in the crook of his arm and put his hand to his chin. “Perhaps because they were inanimate until a trigger condition was met, so they weren’t a threat until their activation.”
“Maybe,” Leona said with a shrug. She began to move her hands to her belt and rested them on the pommel of her dagger and rapier, respectively.
“That dagger you have is unique,” Kryos commented. “You called it a rondel?”
“Mhmm. I’ve got it for armored guys like you,” Leona said. She moved around the other side of the chest and pulled some tools from her belt pouch—a few long, metal implements. “It’s meant . . . for punching through plates . . . but it worked just fine . . . on stone . . . my rapier . . . is meant for . . . fleshier things . . .”
Kryos heard a loud click, and instinctively raised his shield in front of him as he crouched.
Leona snickered. “It’s disabled. Come on, use that muscle to lift the lid.”
Kryos peeked over the rim of his shield, then slung it over his shoulder, put his flanged mace through the loop on his belt, and got his finger-claws under the lip of the lid. With a bit of a shove, he got the lid up and off. It clattered to the side of the chest with a loud bang. His instinct began flaring in his chest, as his entire torso heated up. The whole chest was filled with hundreds of coins, and instinctively he began reaching out for them.
Once more, Leona’s hand slapped him. “Ah-ah-ah, bad dragon. I’m the senior member, so I count.” She began pulling handfuls of coins out, and Kryos kept his eyes glued to her hands, making sure that she didn’t sneak a single piece for herself.
Tavan paced away, seeming to investigate the entrance of the next chamber, and Kryos heard him speaking but didn’t actually listen to his words, because he was so intently focused on Leona. It wasn’t until the Mender came over and grabbed his shoulder, shaking him, that Kryos looked at him. “What?” Kryos asked.
“I said that the next chamber looks completely different,” Tavan said, repeating himself. “It’s quite dark. I can’t see much.”
Kryos tore his gaze away from the man and back to Leona. “We’ll deal with it soon,” he said. “How’s the split looking?”
Leona had made four piles—one with a significantly smaller pile of coins. “This is the guild’s take.” She pulled the small pouch from earlier out, and took those coins, shoving them into the bag, and put it away. “Each of us gets one pile.”
Kryos immediately opened his Trader’s Pouch and shoved the coins in.
[Your Hoard has reached the EHV (effective hoard value) to qualify for a level up!]
[You have gained 2 levels! Level 5, Level 6!]
[Choose 2 Stat Points to Allocate!]
Decisions, he thought. I could keep investing into Strength and Vitality, I could put some into Agility to keep that from falling behind too much. Essence is always good . . . okay, SAVE system, put one point into Strength, and one into Vitality.
[Confirmed!]
[You have reached a level increment of 5!]
[You have gained a Skill point!]
[Unlock a new Skill, or Enhance an existing Skill?]
Kryos knew about this, as both of his parents had told him about it. Skills could be upgraded twice: once from Base to Enhanced, and then again from Enhanced to Advanced. Given how much he was using Singularity Stance, it made sense for him to invest in upgrading that.
And, a person could only have eight Skills equipped at a single time. It took an hour of low-impact, downtime activity to swap out Skills. The most sensible move in his eyes was to specialize in his existing Skills, and only add a Skill when it was necessary.
Refine and focus rather than expand.
Let’s improve Singularity Stance.
[Confirmed!]
[Singularity Stance II.]
[In addition to gaining increased resistance to physical and force-based damage, you now gain that same resistance to elemental damage.]
Kryos willed the small window in the corner of his vision to vanish, and made sure his Trader’s Pouch was closed up nice and tight. He glanced at Leona, who was busy stowing her own loot, and then Tavan, who was finishing putting his away. “So, once we leave the chamber, we get our Experience?” he asked, trying to blend in and cover for his earlier misstep.
“Yes,” Leona replied.
“I got mine,” Tavan added. “But I checked the other room at the threshold.” He smirked. “Just hit level eleven. I got my first Trait Unlock.”
Kryos knew of that as well. Every ten levels from eleven onwards, excluding one-hundred which counted as well, a person gained a Trait point to either Unlock a new Trait as Tavan seemed to have done, or Enhance an existing one. Unlike Skills, Traits could only be Enhanced once. But, on the plus side, there was no limit to the amount of Traits a person could have.
His dad had also told him that there were ancient items called Artifacts that people could find that gave Traits and Skills to the wielder. Rylos’ self-playing instruments were examples of such items.
Then, Kryos’ mom told him even better news: if those Artifacts were put into his hoard, Kryos would get those Traits and Skills as long as they remained in his hoard. He would have all the benefit, with none of the need to carry the objects on him—which would make him a high-value target.
“Good for you,” Leona said as she finished packing her loot away in her pack and shouldered it again. “Now, you said the next room is dark?” She looked at Kryos. “How’s your sight?”
“I can see perfectly in the dark,” Kryos said. “You?”
She shook her head. “Unless I’m underwater, then I can see perfectly.” She whipped her pack off her back again, dug around inside, and came up with two torches. She handed one to Tavan, then looked at Kryos. “Any chance you can breathe fire?”
That got a chuckle out of him. “No. I’m not a fire dragon. They’re red.”
“Worth asking.” She grabbed flint and steel and struck a spark to each torch, igniting them, and then stowed her pack again before leading the way into the next Chamber.
Kryos followed her and emerged onto a large stone platform: more black granite, but this looked to be a single, titanic slab that had been shattered on the edge, leaving them at the end of a yawning chasm. Beneath them, black, still water sat, but it did not carry a stagnant smell in any way. In fact, it carried an oddly fresh scent, similar to the river drakes that Kryos had encountered in the Drakemount. Little ripples occasionally broke the surface of the dark liquid.
The room was long, with jagged, stone pillars jutting upward all across the space that looked to have perhaps supported a bridge at some point, with the trio standing at the far edge of one end that had long since collapsed. At the farthest end of the room was a sealed doorway. Some of the pillars kept hold of their bridge pieces: granite slabs like the one that they were standing on.
Some type of moss or lichen had to be growing on the underside of the bridge clusters, as there was a dim green glow that cast a faint illumination on the dark water, and what Kryos saw sent some shivers down his spine. He could see bones partially submerged in the fluid, colored a sickly, pale yellow from age, and covered in slimy goop. They hinted at a creature who once dwelled in the chamber’s liquid below, perhaps as a guardian, that used to be the same size as his mom in her full dragon size.
And when she was in that form, from snout to tail, she measured one-hundred-and-fifty feet long.
Tavan let out a little whistle, which echoed throughout the room, breaking the eerie quiet. “Wow. Big room.”
Kryos almost felt an instinct to shush him, but didn’t—yet the room’s nature felt like it demanded silence. The ripples on the water seemed to ever-so-subtly fluctuate more rapidly at the utterances.
Leona seemed to pick up on that as well, and grabbed Tavan’s arm, yanking him closer. She harshly whispered, “Not so loud.”
Kryos peeked over the edge of the platform, and then tried to take in the optimal path across. “Maybe we jump? I don’t know how stable each platform is. We could climb down and go through the water? It can’t be too deep.” He could feel treasure, that heat in his chest, faintly pulling him forward, but it was far weaker than the instinct that screamed at him that this Chamber needed to be respected, or else.
Tavan clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Big rooms are rarely safe. I wouldn’t go anywhere near the water.”
Leona began examining the bridge chunks, pacing from one section of their little platform to the next. She held her torch out to Kryos. “Hold this, please.” He did so, and she got her pack, rustled around, and pulled out a rope. Then, she grabbed a bag which let out a poof of powder when she touched it—and he realized it was filled with chalk dust. She tied it off to the rope, then used her hand to mark out feet on the rope, before flinging it.
Then she flung it over to a platform on top of one of the pillars, and dragged it back. “Hmm,” she muttered. “Six feet. Easy jump, plenty of foot space, even for you big guy. The question is, can the platform support our weight.”
Tavan quietly replied, “Chambers don’t present impossible challenges: it's antithetical to the nature of Rifts.” He glanced at Kryos. “But . . .”
“But what?” Kryos asked as the man trailed off.
“I don’t know how it’ll respond to you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Kryos asked, his voice rising in volume. Almost immediately, he regretted it, as the water below rippled even more, but then stilled again.
“Shh!” Leona whispered as she looped her rope tool over her shoulder for later use and took her torch back from Kryos.
Tavan said, “I just mean that a half-dragon going into Rifts isn’t something I’ve ever heard of, so I don’t know how they’ll react to you. Theoretically, they should acclimate to the adventurer called. But that’s theory.”
Leona cleared her throat. “Just follow me as best you can.” She took a few steps back, and then with a quick two-step-start, jumped to the first chunk of bridge. She landed with cat-like grace on the four-foot-wide and two-foot-long platform, with not a single iota of effort wasted. “Just like that.” She then unlooped her rope tool, flung it to the next platform, and drew it back. “Next one is five feet.”
Tavan looked at Kryos. “Let me go next. It’s less likely that I dislodge or disrupt something compared to you, given your size.”
“Can’t argue with that,” Kryos muttered.
Leona cleared the first platform, and a few seconds later Tavan took a running start and leaped to the first platform. Then, as Leona went to the third, Tavan went to the second.
Alright, Kryos thought as he made sure his shield was affixed on his back and mace was slung to his hip. It’s just a few jumps. Feet-claws out and ready to dig in as best I can, not too much momentum. I’ve got this. He took a few steps and jumped the gap.
The first platform shook under his weight, but held. A few bits and pieces of rock were dislodged from the underside of the chunk, and went clattering into the water. Kryos froze—as did the other two—and all of them listened to the subtle splash. Kryos winced at the noise, dreading the possibility that something lurked in the depths below and was disturbed.
Tavan raised a finger to his lips and Kryos just shrugged. What could he do about it? He watched as Leona kept crossing the chamber, using her chalk-bag to mark out distances, a separate piece of chalk to write down on the platform exactly how many feet away it was from the prior one, and move with perfect elegance. She moved with grace and poise that Kryos, in the moment, was envious of and enthralled by, with not a single wasted motion.
It was impressive, and annoying. She was so skilled, and he saw how out of his depth he was as an adventurer.
Kryos jumped to the second platform and skidded on the rock, having to throw himself back onto his rump to prevent from sliding off. “Damnit!” he muttered under his breath, feeling his aggravation growing. Thankfully, no stones broke off this time, and he got to his feet, and jumped to the next platform.
Tavan seemed to be having a decent go of things in front of him—not as elegant as Leona, but not having nearly as rough of a time as him. The Mender was still stumbling a little here and there, but made it across while Kryos was still halfway there.
Kryos was on the fifth platform when he jumped to the sixth and misjudged how much oomph to put into his leap, and fell a bit short. “Shit!” he let out as he got his arms out, getting his arms onto the platform and holding tight as his upper body got onto it, and his lower body scrambled for purchase: clawed feet finding some on the pillar.
“Kryos!” Leona shouted back. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay!” he replied, hauling himself up.
Then the pillar bucked upward, and the bridge started to tilt. Every instinct told him to jump, his Predation Awareness Trait screaming that a predator was nearby—just like when a stronger wyrmling was hunting him in the Drakemount, and he leapt to the next platform without hesitation, landing on his feet.
The pillar and platform he had been standing on collapsed into the water, and Kryos barely caught sight of a leathery, scaled shape that had coiled itself around the pillar, crushed it, and been the cause of its collapse. He kept his eyes glued to the water, holding his breath, not daring to make a single noise.
“Star-seal above,” Tavan whispered, his voice carrying across the room, filled with terror.
“Kryos! Move!” Leona shouted.
Kryos didn’t hesitate—he jumped for the next platform. And not a second too soon, as the moment he landed on the next one, the one he had been standing on crumbled as well. He wasn’t just jumping cautiously now, it was a mad dash for the safety of the far platform. He could hear the sloshing of the water, the crunch of stone being constricted by and destroyed by the shape in the depths, and his Trait was urging him to flee a stronger foe.
He got to the last platform and made to leap for the safety of the final ledge of the far-side near the Chamber door—but the part of the bridge and pillar he had been standing on was crushed, and began to tilt backward. His jump was short, and Kryos only got his hand-claws into the granite of the ledge. He was clinging on for dear life, and thanks to the hardness of the stone, he couldn’t get firm purchase—he was slipping.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Hands grabbed onto his wrists. “Come on you heavy fucker!” Leona shouted, her voice filled with concern and panic, an almost desperate pleading call.
Kryos’ feet couldn’t find purchase, and he didn’t have enough leverage to do anything with his arms. He was fully in the hands of his allies. Tavan was grunting with exertion, and Kryos could hear Leona’s labored breathing as the two counted out “One, two, three!” and yanked together on the third count.
That got the half-dragon’s forearms up over the edge. It gave Kryos enough leverage that he could use his upper body and hoist himself up farther, and use his prodigious strength to get himself up, roll over the edge of the ledge, and suck in breaths of relief as he lay on his back, staring up. He let out an exhausted laugh of near-mania at the near-death encounter.
Leona did the same, whilst Tavan stood up and leaned over the edge of the chasm, vomiting.
“You’re . . . a heavy fucker,” Leona said through staggered breaths.
“Sorry,” Kryos said.
“By the seals,” Tavan whispered.
Kryos pushed himself up and glanced over the ledge. He could see into the waters below, and saw the outline of a massive, serpentine creature with a huge, near-draconic jaw that was far longer in the snout department. Its nostrils poked above the water, revealing leathery skin, and its piercing, yellow, slitted eyes stared at the group before the whole form dipped under the waves, leaving still, inky black liquid.
“Fuck that,” Leona said.
As soon as the words left her mouth, the door behind them opened, and Kryos felt the bridge remnant under him shaking. Tavan shouted, “Quick! Off the bridge!”
Kryos didn’t need to be told twice, and scrabbled to his feet as he made a mad dash for the door. Leona was a step ahead of him, and Tavan was right next to him as the last bit of the bridge collapsed.
Thankfully, the next bit of hallway seemed completely clear, and Leona echoed the sentiment by saying, “I’m not picking up anything with my Hazard Sense Trait. We can rest if we like.”
Kryos sat back down. His treasure sense was still going off, farther toward the next Chamber which lay through an open doorway, but he needed a moment. “Thank you,” he said to his allies. “You both saved my life.”
Tavan sank down onto the floor opposite him. “Not a problem.” He winced, then held his hand in front of his face and a green goop flew from his fingertips and into his mouth. Then, he swallowed. “Ah. Mmm. Well, except the torn rotator cuff. But that’s fixed now.”
Leona rolled her eyes. “Drama queen.” She sank down into a crouch rather than sitting down, and put away her rope and chalk. “You did as well as could be expected given the type of setup we encountered. Might want to invest in some Agility though.”
“I can see that,” Kryos replied. “Being an adventurer, you should probably have a good split of stats. I’m mostly into Strength and Vitality.”
“Good,” Tavan said. “That’s what an Anchor should be heavily invested into. And, of course, enough Essence for whatever Skills you need.” He hiked a thumb at himself. “That’s my highest stat, since I rely so much on Skills.”
“But,” Leona added, “You shouldn’t neglect one stat entirely.” She pointed to the room they had just survived. “Case-in-point.”
Tavan chuckled. “Right. Magic Items help with that, but for folk like us? Adventurers out on the fringes of civilization? Yeah, those don’t come often.”
Leona cracked a smile at that, and set her torch onto the stone floor, where it sat scorching the stone floor. “We get Artifacts at the end of this, so we’ll be a cut above the rest.”
Kryos scratched his head, then winced as he forgot to retract his claw—not the first time he’d done it, and certainly not the last. “What’s the difference between those and Artifacts? I’ve heard of both, but they aren’t the same?”
Tavan let out a barking laugh. “Wow, you really are uneducated.” He then frowned. “Sorry, that wasn’t meant as an insult.”
Kryos chuckled. “It’s okay. Inform me, please.”
“Magic Items,” Leona said, “are made by people with Classes that are focused around crafting.” She pointed at Kryos’ bag. “That thing you have there is a Magic Item. How much space does it have?”
“A cubic foot,” Kryos replied. “Plus these padded compartments for vials.”
“So,” Tavan said, “Probably a Weaver who was Tier two, if those compartments make the objects within immune to smashing. If not, then Tier one. Magic Items take a lot of rare resources to make.”
Kryos reached into his bag and pulled out the chitin plates from the monster he had slain in the mountain. “Like these?”
Tavan shrugged. “I don’t know. Those would need to be taken to someone like an Armorer or Smith, maybe even a Tanner. Anyways, those types of Classes use resources like that and special Skills to make Magic Items. Magic Items aren’t super rare, just expensive.”
Leona nodded and tapped a pouch on her hip. “I have a set of lockpicks here that are magic. Eversize Lockpicks. A single set, and they work on any size lock.”
Tavan tapped his rod. “This is one also, it reduces the cost of my Biomancy Skills.” He let out a little sigh. “Then you’ve got Artifacts. Those only come from Rifts, and are often passed down through generations. Every adventurer who clears out a Rift gets one at the end. Think of them like a step above Magic Items.”
Leona grinned at that, and Kryos could sense a kindred level of desire in her. Not the same level of greed for wealth, no, but a lust for something else . . . security, perhaps. “Yeah,” she said. “I’ve been waiting for a Rift to call me. It’s why I moved all the way out here. In a big city like Shhiv’s Spear? Way too many adventurers to get the call. But out here? Way more likely.”
Huh, Kryos thought. So that explains why people would move out to the edges of the ever-expanding world. A higher chance for Rift calls. It would also make sense for me to stay out here for a while then, since Rifts have wealth in them, and these Artifacts sound like they are valuable. And, I don’t need them on my person—just in my hoard, and I get the benefits and value for determining my overall power.
“You look confused,” Tavan said.
Kryos shook his head and grinned. “No. I’m not. Just thinking about what I’m going to get when we clear this place out.”
Tavan smiled. “That’s the spirit. Are we all good?”
Kryos stood up, unslung his shield, fixed it to his arm, and grabbed his mace. “I’m ready.”
Leona grabbed her torch and stood up. The stick had burned partially down, and she clicked her tongue. “Maybe another thirty minutes before this one runs out.”
Tavan nodded as he stood up. “Probably. We’ve got a few more, but I don’t see any more light sources in the ceiling.”
Kryos felt very blessed by his heritage in that moment as he could see everything perfectly. Leona gestured for him to take the lead, and he walked in front of the other two, through the open doorway, and took in the next Chamber.
It was a burial vault of some kind: a large, rectangle room that was wider than it was long, that was filled with sealed jars, niches carved into the walls where some type of coffins of carved stone were placed, and piles of old, linen or cotton wrappings that had long gone to rot were strewn about. The room was quiet and oddly peaceful compared to the chasm beforehand. Across from them was a large circular door which was embedded into the wall. There were grooves along it, and a circle at the bottom, along with a circle at the center which had a deeper impression and raised lip.
Tavan sighed. “Ah, well, this is peaceful. Perhaps a puzzle where we have to find an orb, place it in the bottom circle, and then navigate it through the door—”
The doorway behind them slammed shut, and Kryos turned at the noise, but then was greeted by the quiet again.
Leona took a few steps forward. “Hmm. Okay, Tavan, want to take a look at the door? Kryos, we can start looking for this orb for the puzzle door. Oh, first, let’s get some light.” She used her torch and lit some of the piles of rags, sending them ablaze—they burned within an instant and she backed away from the sudden surge of heat. “Oh, shit, okay maybe not.”
Tavan walked over to the door and began to move a finger along the grooves. “It seems simple enough. Move the ball along the grooves to solve the puzzle, get it to the center.” He turned around. “We just need to find the ball. Maybe in one of the sarcophagi?”
“The what-now?” Kryos asked.
Tavan walked over to one of the niches and tapped the stone coffin. “This thing. It’s a burial rite of some religions. Instead of wood, they go with stone. Come over, use those muscles.”
Kryos began to move over, then stopped. He heard something skittering. “Did anyone hear that?”
Leona’s eyes were darting around. “You hear it too?”
“Hear what?” Tavan asked. Then, he let out a shriek and danced away from the coffin, jumping around as he dropped the torch and his rod, moving his hands around toward his back. “Get it out! Get it out!”
Leona ran over and shoved her hand down the back of his tunic, pulling out a squirming insect of some type that had massive jaws which currently held a meaty, bleeding chunk of Tavan’s skin and flesh. She threw it on the ground and Kryos immediately squished it underfoot, feeling it explode under his weight.
“What was that?” Kryos asked.
Then, he heard it. More skittering noises. It amplified to the point that it felt like there were claws dragging on rock in his ears. He had to grit his teeth as the noise built up on itself. From the way Leona’s face was screwing up in irritation, he knew her hearing was suffering as well.
Tavan grabbed his rod and moved to the center of the room. “Fucking flesh-eating bugs!”
Kryos immediately activated Singularity Stance II and Pressure Field, eyes scanning for any targets. Leona drew her rapier and kept her torch in her other hand, and her eyes darted back and forth. “There!” she shouted, pointing with her blade.
Kryos saw the crack in the wall she pointed to, and dozens of the fist-sized creatures began to pour out of the crevice in the wall. Then, another crack further away. Dozens became hundreds, and he felt a pit in his stomach as he realized just how many there were.
Tavan held his rod up and all of the group were covered in a thick coating of the green goop. “We need to find that orb! Smash the sarcophagi and find it!” He shoved Kryos—though Kryos didn’t move an inch because of his stance. “Hurry!”
Thousands of the insects flooded across the room, and thankfully Kryos’ Pressure Field was large enough to cover the whole space—the moment the insects hit it, they moved far slower, as if they were struggling through molasses or honey. But, they were a swarm that pushed in an inexorable tide, and made it to the group. Kryos used his mace and took huge, cleaving sweeps to the clusters, using the weapon like a broom as he cleared a path along the ground toward one of the coffins on the wall.
The things were seemingly endless, and they got onto his legs. “There’s too many!” Kryos shouted.
“Ignore them!” Leona screamed as she tried to skewer several then gave up and resorted to sweeping swipes with her rapier and torch. “Tavan! Use everything to keep us covered!”
“I am!” the Mender replied as the green goop was devoured by the beetles that were swarming the group, now climbing up their legs and eating at the Biofilm rather than their flesh. “Stay close to the Anchor! His field is slowing them!”
Kryos got to the wall and began smashing the sides of the sarcophagi, and then turned to sweep away the massive hoard of insects with his mace, sending their devastated carapaces flying with squishes and crunches. The bulk were able to be kept at bay with a combination of that and Tavan’s torch, while Leona behind him rummaged through the coffins for the orb that would open up the puzzle door.
“It’s not here!” Leona shouted. “We gotta move to the next one!”
Tavan cursed. “I’m at half MP.”
Kryos felt panic begin to set in. He was at good HP, but the sheer number of these foes still scared him. He didn’t know if their pincers were strong enough to get through his scales, but he had fleshy parts, and they were already wriggling through the biofilm and inside of his armor. He led the way to the next section of coffins, and the group worked as a team, rotating as they swept away the insects with torches, mace, and rapier swipes. When they reached a wall with the niches, Kryos smashed the coffins, turned to hold off the swarms with Tavan, and Leona searched for the orb to the puzzle door.
“I’m almost out!” Tavan said.
“Got it!” Leona replied. “Got the orb!”
“Let’s move,” Kryos growled out as he opted to use his bulk to shove through the mass of insects. “Come on! Stick close!” He held his shield in front of him and chose to rely on his armored greaves and the heft of his body to act like a battering ram as he charged through the swarm, carving a path with his bulk as his allies followed.
The Biofilm faded, and Tavan let out a gasp of shock or desperation, which then became a cry of panic.
Kryos gritted his teeth and let out a yelp of pain as he could feel the beetles biting him. They couldn’t get through his scales—thankfully—but they were able to get through his skin, and a few of them were near his torso which was uncovered by the scales. As soon as he reached the door, he flung himself chest-first at it. The impact shook him, but he felt the gross squish of the insects inside his chestplate, and then turned around to take lopping sweeps at the insect swarm to keep them at bay.
Leona slipped past him along with Tavan, and must have handed the man the orb as she quickly took a spot next to him, and had swapped her rapier for Tavan’s torch, as she used both in sweeps to try and hold the scarab beetles back. She was letting out curses and cries of pain as she helped Kryos protect their Mender, as the man worked to solve the puzzle door. “Tavan!” she shouted.
“I’m working on it!” the Mender screamed back, his voice shrill in panic. “Fuck!”
Kryos could feel the pain amplifying and watched as his HP decreased little by little. He could feel himself fatiguing, and glancing sideways, saw that Leona looked extremely haggard. “Grab the potion!” he shouted at her, not quite sure why he said it.
She tossed a torch in the air, mid-way through one of his swings, slipped her hand into his Trader’s Pouch front pocket, grabbed the Healing Potion, sipped it down, and then caught the torch—all in a few smooth movements. Then she kept swinging the two flaming implements.
Kryos felt satisfaction for a moment, but then was grounded back to reality by the life-and-death situation he was in. He was fully relying on the Mender behind him to solve this puzzle and get them out of this room.
There better be some fucking good treasure in here, he thought. This better make me wealthy and contribute massively to my hoard.
“Got it!” Tavan shouted.
Kryos heard a rumbling behind him and immediately backpedaled. He passed through some type of clear, magical film that seemed to strip away all of the bugs, and he watched as they leapt at the film but were rebuffed.
Leona had walked backward with him, and was panting, covered in bite marks with patches of flesh missing. She looked at him, nodded, and then sank down to her rear, sucking in deep breaths.
Kryos glanced back at Tavan, and saw that the man looked absolutely shredded to bits. His robes were torn up, revealing skin that had been bitten and chewed up. He was laying on the ground, whimpering, and his blood was oozing out onto the stone floor.
Leona followed his gaze and her face turned to one of panic. “Shit!”
Leona pulled her pack off and dumped it out. Kryos saw all types of stuff tumble out. “Help me out! Get him stripped and find his waterskin!”
Kryos tossed his mace down and stripped his shield off of his forearm, tossing it down as well. But then he felt it. His wealth-sense, his treasure detection, stronger than ever before. His chest pulsed with a heat that made his eyes snap up, and his breath caught in his throat.
They were on the threshold, at the top of a set of stairs, of a massive treasure room. Golden idols stood depicting all manner of human-bodied and animal-headed creatures, embedded with gemstones. Statues covered with gold and silver flecked armor were scattered about, nestled inside piles of gold and silver coins from eras that Kryos didn’t recognize.
The piles sang to his soul, and he didn’t hear anything. But, then, something heavy slammed into his chest. And it hurt. He looked over and saw that Leona had slammed his mace into his ribs. She didn’t really have a ton of strength, but it was enough to dent his armor and get his attention. “Hey! Help!”
Kryos realized what was happening and said, “Sorry! What do I do?”
“Get his waterskin. We need to wash out his wounds as best we can.”
Kryos grabbed Tavan’s pack as the man slipped into unconsciousness. He rifled through until he found the pouch with a cork on the end. “Now what?”
Leona was laying out what looked to be a variety of items from a set of medic’s tools—simple clean linen rolls, some type of vial which sloshed with a greenish liquid, and an adhesive paste in a clay jar with a stiff bristle brush. “You need to get cloth wet and wipe his wounds. While he’s unconscious, preferably.”
Kryos set to work, following her instructions. His dad had taught him some basic medical care, but Leona’s instructions were a bit more intensive. He wetted some of the linen and wiped out all of Tavan’s wounds, then watched and listened as Leona explained the process. She put some of the green liquid—something she called an antiseptic to prevent infections—onto the linen, then pushed that onto the wound, and then used the paste over it to adhere it to the skin and keep it in place.
The whole process took them a good fifteen minutes, but by the time they were done, Tavan had been fully patched over. “Okay, now me,” Leona said. “You’ll need to help out with parts I can’t reach. And honestly, it’ll go faster if you help all over.” She began disrobing.
Kryos glanced at his HUD.
-----
HP: 89 / 150
-----
I came out pretty well all things considered, he thought.
“Okay,” Kryos said as he made sure all of his claws were fully retracted and did as he was told.
Leona took off her boots first and pointed at her right foot. “Start there, I’ll do the left. Divide and conquer.”
Kryos didn’t question her instructions, but he did glance at the piles of treasure and stared off for a few moments before snapping his attention back to her. “Is Tavan going to be okay?”
“He’s probably really low on HP,” she replied. “But, he’s alive. Let him rest. Rifts don’t have a timer or anything like that. This room doesn’t appear dangerous—lucky us. We can rest. When he’s recovered, well, his Essence is high, he’ll have a good amount of MP. He can heal up quite a bit.” She frowned. “Okay, don’t get any ideas.”
“Hmm?”
Leona slipped her boots on and winced as she did so. “The leggings need to come off next.”
“And?” Kryos asked.
Leona blinked a few times, then laughed. “I forgot, you probably haven’t even seen a woman in that way.”
“In what way?”
She doubled over, holding her stomach, then rolled onto her side laughing. After recovering, she rolled onto her back. “Oh . . . star-seal above!” She sat up fully and looked at Kryos, wiping a tear from her eye. “You’re . . . oh, the others are going to get a kick out of that.”
Kryos frowned, and sat back in a crouch. “Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you just mean being nude? So what? I grew up around dragons, not people. I know about people, mind you, but my idea of society is not getting your head bitten off and knowing who is more dangerous than you.”
Leona’s mirth died down and she looked at him with a coy, querying expression. “Oh? Is that so?”
Kryos nodded. “I have a Trait that is literally about sensing if I am the predator or prey in a situation.”
“And what do you feel right now?” she asked with a slight frown.
Kryos cocked his head to his left. “Honestly? Nothing. I’m not feeling anything from my Predation Awareness.” He shrugged. “Which just means that I feel safe around you. Same as with my parents.”
Her frown faded and a near-apologetic smile seemed to flicker across her face before vanishing as if it were never there as her regular neutral look took its place. “Well, regardless, I know I lost some flesh on my arse, and I can’t properly treat that area. So, I’m going to stand, and you’re going to help with my backside and back. I’ll deal with my front. Got it?”
“Understood.”
She stood up, and Kryos tended to her wounds without any fuss. Mentally he noted that she was quite attractive, and he felt a sensation stir in his chest that he hadn’t felt before. But, he knew better than to ask her about such feelings, and he had a guess as to what it might be.
Might be a good time to ask a friend, he thought. Gary is married. He’d be well informed enough to tell me if what I’m feeling is what I think it might be.
After tending to Leona’s wounds, she re-dressed and outfitted herself. “Okay, now it's your turn.”
“I’m not that injured,” Kryos said sheepishly, feeling heat rise to his cheeks. “Eighty-nine out of one-hundred and fifty.”
Leona clicked her tongue. “We’ve got time to tend wounds. Come on, we need our Anchor as healthy as possible. Only two Chambers left, and the last one is always the hardest.”
Kryos frowned, then sighed. “If you insist.” He began removing the armor, or tried to, as he wasn’t actually very well-versed in how it went on and off since Pavish had helped him get it on. Leona seemed to have some knowledge of it, and helped remove some of the straps and latches. Once the armor was off, she had him remove the stained-purple hospital-white shirt.
“You . . . do you bleed purple?” she asked.
“Yes,” Kryos replied. “Not red like you all.”
“Fascinating,” she muttered. “Out of curiosity, what color is your spit?”
“Clear?” Kryos said. “Weird question.”
“I mean not really.” Leona gestured for him to spin around, and he did so. “Damn, they got your back good.”
Kryos began administering the first aid to his torso, and winced as the antiseptic stung. Thankfully, they only had to deal with his torso because the rest of him was covered with scales, and the insects didn’t get to his neck and face.
Or so he thought. Leona pulled his trousers down, and Kryos reactively tried to pull them back up. “Hey!” he shouted, spinning around and getting his feet caught in the leg-holes, falling on his ass.
“I was curious where the scales ended and human parts began,” she said with a snicker. “Also, you did get bit on the lower abdomen.”
“I can deal with that,” Kryos mumbled as he grabbed the first aid kit and set to patching himself over. “Also, it's rude to drop my trousers like that out of the blue.”
Leona smirked and walked to the edge of the staircase. “Wow, lots of treasure. Most of it is probably trapped.”
Tavan groaned, and Kryos snapped his eyes onto the man. “Oh, is he waking up?”
Leona walked back and crouched. “Hey, you’re alive.”
Tavan sat up, winced, and let out another groan. “Thanks for patching me up.” He looked over at Kryos, blinking a few times. “Why are you partly naked?”