Kryos took a step back from the ledge, still keeping an eye over it, still feeling the treasure sense burning in his chest. He looked back at Dorna, who had managed to extricate herself from Merrik, and Leona, who was looking at him with a raised, quizzical eyebrow. “Well?” Leona asked.
Kryos filled her in on what he saw, ending with, “Honestly, it seems like the monsters are the biggest issue. Plus whatever is in the bottom—”
“Must be a trick of the eyes,” Merrik said as he walked over, suddenly confident and full of enthusiasm. He looked over the edge. “I don’t see anything.”
“You can’t see in the dark,” Dorna replied. “Idiot.”
Merrik looked back at her. “Oh? Well, maybe you’re right, maybe he’s wrong. Regardless, I can see the glimmer from up here with barely any light!”
“Shh,” Kryos said.
Merrik looked up at him and began tapping his wooden board, talking in hushed tones. “The scale of exposed ore is incredible! We could easily mine this vein in a couple of months and make millions of silver ingots. All we need are some lift systems, which from your description it sounds like we have the basic infrastructure for already, and just a means to get rid of the monsters. Easy for you Adventurers, eh? Just bait them over and whack them?”
Dorna crossed her arms. “And what about worker safety? This section of the mine isn’t even cleared out. We’d need to clear the cave system, which even with the full Irontrail Guild working on will take a week solid at least. Plus make room for the carts and widen out the tunnels from the main entrance to this new branch. Not to mention the fall arrest systems that will take some months to get here from Shhiv’s Spear—”
“We don’t need that if people are careful,” Merrik replied.
Leona gave Kryos a look that, again, screamed, ‘don’t get involved,’ and she took a few steps back to investigate one of the flying monster’s corpses.
Kryos leaned back over the ledge and stared down at the silver. The large shape he had seen was gone—it had vanished completely, and all he saw was inky blackness of the vast depths that had seemingly no end.
Maybe it was just me seeing things, he thought.
He tuned back into the duo’s conversation as Merrik said, “We should go down to inspect the lower ledges.”
“Out of the question,” Dorna said. “We have no rope, no way to arrest a fall—”
Merrik pulled his pack off of his back and pulled out a thin cord. “Actually, I do. It’s not your standard rope, sure, but it’ll do the trick.”
Dorna scowled. “We don’t have a properly trained crew.”
Merrik pointed at Kryos. “He’s strong. He can climb some metal rungs slammed into a wall.” The man looked at Kryos. “Can’t you, big guy?”
Kryos looked at him, then down at the silver vein. “And what’s in it for us? Our job was to escort you to the chasm. We’re here. Just need to get you back, and our Quest is complete.” He glanced over at Leona who gave him a subtle, approving nod before going back to her investigation of the corpses.
Merrik frowned. “Ah, well, urm.” He patted around his pockets, and then fished around in one and pulled out a slip of paper. “Ah, here, I can give you a slip that is good for passage to Shhiv’s Spear on a company ship. A household’s worth of people, goods, and supplies.”
Leona walked over. “You just happened to have that on you?”
“I had intended to use it to get home myself,” Merrik replied. “But I can always get another.”
“One moment,” Leona said as she put a hand around Kryos’ mid-back and pulled him away from the chasm ledge. She lowered her voice to a whisper as they got a few dozen feet away. “We’re not taking sides, but that voucher would be a good way to get our mobile Guild Hall down from Suncrest. The lift would be pricey, otherwise.”
“If it’ll save us in the long run,” Kryos replied. “I’m loath to part with coin. And those metal staples looked pretty solid. I’ve got sure footing—as long as we’re quiet and don’t point the light up, I think the flying monsters will leave us be.”
Leona nodded and patted him on the mid-back again, then the two walked back over. “Deal. Voucher in exchange for climbing down with you a bit to check out some of the lower ledges.”
Merrik’s face lit up with a grin. “Perfect! Just let me tie this off around me—” he tied the rope around his waist, then moved over to the ledge and tied one section off to an eyelet. “Okay, you two go first.”
“No light pointing up,” Kryos ordered. “And no loud noises.” He slung his shield, looped his mace through his belt, and glanced over the ledge once more. To his left, at nearly head height, he saw a series of staples that made the start of the ladder quite convenient, and he began to climb down with his back to the chasm.
Dorna muttered, “I’m staying up here. Not risking my neck for a closer look at an ore vein.” She shone the lantern down onto the ladder. “But I’ll hold this here for you.”
Kryos looked up and spotted Leona descending after him, followed by Merrik last. He made it down to the first wooden platform, and put a foot out and some weight on it to test. The wood made a loud creaking noise, and so he stopped. “This one’s no good,” Kryos said.
“You sure?” Merrik asked from above.
“Pretty sure,” Kryos replied. He glanced down. “There’s a ledge a bit farther down. Rock ledge. Should be safe to pause on.” He kept descending, and made it to the ledge, hopping off, and peered over once more. Another seventy feet, and they would be at the vein. The large, slanting vein that called to him and made the heat in his chest thump alongside his beating heart. There was another dropoff past it, he knew, but that was outside of his line of sight from this angle.
Unfortunately, there were no more metal ladder rungs nailed into the walls. Just ledges, with the remnants of wooden ladders propped between them. Leona made it to the platform behind him. “We might be able to go a little deeper,” she said, “but I don’t trust those ladders.”
Merrik got off the ladder and crouched, pulling his pack off of his back, and removing some object that looked like a tube with another, longer pipe in the center. “That vein is about as pure as it can get,” he said with a grin. “Perfect. This is as close as I needed to get to gauge the purity.”
Kryos noticed movement. Not the massive shape that he could have sworn he saw previously, but something off to his left. Instinctively, he grabbed his mace and made to get his shield, but something swooped down at him and bowled into him. If not for his still-active Singularity Stance, he would have been bowled off of the cliff edge. As it was, he still had to take a few stumbling steps back, and felt his back-heel-claw slip off.
Regaining his footing, he scanned to try and find the thing that just swiped at him and left a massive gash across the front of his armor. “Where’d it go?” he asked, trying to keep his voice low. His Predation Awareness was telling him, right then, that he was the prey, and instinct screamed at him to climb and run—but climbing would make him an easy target to get picked off of the wall and go falling into the abyss to certain death.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Leona whipped her rapier out. “No idea.”
Merrik packed up his tube, seemingly having missed the entire half-second impact and reaction. “What?”
Kryos looked at him. “Up against the wall, make yourself as small as you can.” He heard flapping, and activated Pressure Field a fraction of a second before the shape slammed into him from his right side, sending him spinning. He let out a cry of pain that he quickly shut behind gritted teeth and clamped-shut mouth as his arm was wrenched to the side. He managed to keep his footing, and the creature’s passage through the field of increased gravity caught it off guard, as it went tumbling onto the cliff edge.
The creature was similar to the flying monsters from before: a body that was about half the size of Kryos’, putting it at the same size as Leona, but with four legs instead of two, each sporting large talons like that of a full-fledged drake. Large wings that had curled in with the landing impact flared out as the thing regained its balance and let out a screech.
Leona managed to move in and strike at its wings, cutting some holes in the leather of its uninjured side, to prevent further flight—the monster was grounded.
Kryos glanced up, and thankfully, the smaller versions on the ceiling remained still.
Merrik let out a cry of panic and moved toward the ladder, while Leona took up a position on Kryos’ right, near the wall.
The monster began to flap its wings, testing the gravity on its flight capabilities.
We can’t let it take off again, Kryos thought as he moved forward, put both hands onto his mace, and activated Sobek’s Wrath as he brought the mace around. A flare of blue and gold sparked out of the weapon as he brought it crashing into the creature’s wing, crunching the bone structure and sending it slamming into the wall.
Once more, Leona knew right when to capitalize on the moment, and her blade darted forth, piercing an eye, before drawing back. The now partially-blinded creature recovered and leapt at Kryos, one claw aimed at his mace-hand, and the other at his opposite shoulder. Kryos’ Agility was less than this monster’s and he couldn’t react fast enough to dodge, so it managed to make contact and slam into him, taking both to the ground.
Kryos felt the wind knocked out of him as the monster’s talons pinned him down, and he couldn’t bring his mace to bear. Bringing a knee up, he tried to kick it up and off him, but as he did that, it brought its beak—a gnarly, sharp protrusion which had a stubby, stunted nose above it—right down into the gap between his helmet and gorget. It would have been a dire injury if not for Kryos’ natural scales that grew along his collarbone and shoulders. Still, the pointed tip of the beak dug deep, and he let out a gasp of pain with what little air he had left in his lungs.
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HP: 205 / 230
MP: 52 / 140 {110 from Toggled Skills}
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Leona moved along its side, and Kryos saw he rapier trying to stab into the other eye, but the creature’s wings rebuffed her attacks. He couldn’t get his legs into a position to allow his feet-claws to actually do damage, and as the feet talons of the creature kept digging into his arm and shoulder, the beak kept digging deeper.
Thud!
Something heavy impacted the top of the creature, forcing it to slam into Kryos which made him see stars for a moment. But, it knocked the creature’s grip loose, and he was able to shove it off of him and get to his feet. Taking in a breath, he was finally able to use an opening to get his shield onto his arm.
Someone had dropped a wooden support beam onto the creature from above, and sparing a glance that way, Kryos saw Dorna, pick in hand, near one of the rickety platforms which was now missing a piece of its support structure.
The monster regained its senses and stood up, rebuffing Leona’s repeated attempts to stab at its head and neck with its still-intact wing. The thing let out a hiss and squared up with the duo, pacing to the left. Rather than circle along with it, Kryos kept his back to the wall and matched its stride, waiting for an opening. He kept an eye on his MP, watching for when his Pressure Field would run out. He had about twenty seconds left.
Or, he thought, dropping the Skill and reactivating Sobek’s Wrath, I can do this!
He feinted to strike to the right, and the creature moved to counter with a leap toward Leona on his left—but Kryos instead put all of his weight into bashing with his shield, relying on his Mass Instinct and the additional damage from being hit transferred into the bash to deal more harm than it could normally deliver.
The shield-bash slammed into the monster’s face with a resounding crack, sending it reeling backward—and Leona went right under Kryos’ guard and her rapier found the monster’s veins along the neck, cutting a clean line that spilled out red. It reared back and fell into the abyss, tumbling down the slight slop before flopping into the dark beyond the silver vein.
Kryos was sucking in breath, and looked at Leona. She was also breathing heavily, and the two just stayed there for a few seconds.
“We should ask for hazard pay,” she said, breaking the silence as she sheathed her rapier.
Kryos nodded and slung his shield and mace, then gestured to the ladder. The duo ascended and got back to the tunnel entrance, where Merrik and Dorna were in a heated, quiet discussion which ceased when both Adventurers got up. “Thanks,” Kryos said, “for the assist.”
“We’re even now,” Dorna said. “You saved some of mine, I saved you.”
“I don’t think dropping a wooden beam on top of Kryos is the same as him saving four of your miners,” Leona replied. “If anything, you’ve paid him back a quarter.”
Dorna’s face scrunched up, but she nodded. “We done here?”
Merrik looked at the two Adventurers. “I think I got what I need. If we could get a sample, though—”
A loud, reverberating screech echoed through the space, causing all of them to stand stock-still and Leona to slap her hands over her pointed ears as she winced in pain. Kryos moved to the ledge and glanced over. The heat in his chest from his treasure sense was still pushing him toward that silver vein, but he saw a huge shadow moving in the depths of that abyss once more—and he knew he wasn’t seeing something that wasn’t there.
An enormous beast lurked far, far below that silver vein, hidden from view to all except those who could see in the dark like he could.
“We should retreat,” Dorna said.
“I agree,” Merrik replied as he began moving for the tunnel that was marked with fluorescent chalk.
Kryos moved after them, taking up the rear, and grabbing his mace just in case.
Merrik spoke once they got back to the carved mine part of their route, saying, “With proper investment, we could make that route safe! Just clear out some monsters, or get something to repel them, and then a few ropes, simple extraction tools—we could get that whole operation up and running within a week!”
Dorna grabbed him by the shoulder, forcing the man who had been in the lead to stop, and turned him around, pinning him to the wall. “You saw what happened to two trained Adventurers. If you rush this, people die. A week? It’ll take months to clear those things out!”
Merrik put his hand on hers and peeled her fingers back, then brushed his shirt where she had grabbed him. “There’s always risk involved in profit. Suncrest will heavily benefit from getting this silver vein’s harvest operation up and running. And if your miners are cautious, then there won’t be much risk.”
Well, Kryos thought, I can see why the Highpeak Mining Company wants that vein. There’s so much silver there. Those flying creatures are no joke, though. They’re fast. Without my Skill, hitting them is difficult. And that big one? That was a challenge. He rolled his shoulder, still feeling the pain, and then moved his unencumbered left hand to his collarbone, where he felt the warm, sticky blood and winced as his fingers touched the tender flesh.
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HP: 160 / 230
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Leona looked back at him, and a flash of concern flickered across her face. “Visit town after?” she asked.
Kryos nodded and pulled his hand away, wiping it on his chausses. “Yeah, we can do that.”
She paused as the union representative and surveyor kept walking, and she whispered, “I don’t want us taking sides in this whole mining union versus company debacle if we can help it, but I have a feeling this is only the beginning of our dealings with them. Especially if both are going to be commissioning Irontrail Quests to clear out more monsters.”
Kryos nodded. “Right. What do you want to do?”
Leona frowned, and then looked at the two walking away, then gestured for Kryos to follow her as she led the way after them. “We play it by ear, and keep our long-term goal in mind.”
Kryos glanced back over his shoulder, and felt his treasure sense flicker another time, pointing in that direction of the massive silver vein.
I’m sure I’ll be back here soon enough, he thought. And if they’re serious about mining that vein, then someone will have to deal with whatever it is in the depths of that chasm.