(Path of the Dragon Mage: Nomad) 36: The Cache 2 of 3 (Patreon)

"Charm, I'll need a few more minutes."

What did you find?

Charm, he sensed, was too busy fighting off the oncoming ratkin to look through his eyes for the answer.

"Taking the step to Witch Professor, I hope." 

The gleaming ghostly outline of a staircase led downward from the trapdoor. Holding his breath, he stepped onto it. The first step held his weight.

Make it quick. More ratkin are coming. They’ll be in the buildings before long, Charm warned.

"Stall them. I'll be back out as soon as I can. "

There was no mechanism to hold up the trapdoor, nor any lights other than the gleaming outline of the staircase to see by. Luckily, his night vision could function with almost no light at all.

Corvus stepped down the staircase.

The moment the trapdoor closed over him, a message appeared in front of his face:

Ding!

Notice of Class Change along the Path of the Dragon Mage.

Previous Class: Witch Doctor

New Class: Witch Professor

+2 Intelligence +3 Wisdom 

+100 Mana

You have not gained additional class points for this step.

Nice bonuses. There was a slight sense of disappointment he had not gained additional class points. He hadn’t since his first class change to Hedge Witch. Class points seemed to be reserved for extraordinary quest rewards.

Perhaps saving the city would qualify. The additional intelligence and wisdom pushed those base attributes above twenty. Dismissing the message, he looked around the underground room with new eyes.

It was an office stuffed with books. The books were piled in every corner, stacked on shelves from floor to ceiling, sometimes two deep to fit all of them. In the middle room stood a dusty writing desk with even more stacked higher than he stood. This was an entire mini-library, and a treasure that had been long forgotten.

Corvus stepped to the closest shelves and read over the titles:

Theories of Barrier Circles, Common Glyphs, Runic Herb Lore…

This was an absolute treasure trove. And if he had not seen the trapdoor runes, he would have brought the building down on top of it, and possibly buried it forever.

To stop the ratkin, he still had to. 

Now Corvus knew why the Path system had brought him here and knew he had no time to peruse. He started shoving interesting books into his Bag of Holding.

He had four bags, thanks to the loot from the Rat Queens. Thankfully, the books stacked in his inventory slots based on general subject. Space wasn’t the problem.

What he didn't have was the weight.

Each bag of holding reduced the weight of the books by 10%.

Stacking one bag of holding within another compounded this effect. The effect was quite noticeable, especially for the bag within the bag within the bag within the bag. 

Still, Corvus had to be choosy. And he had to be fast.

His eyes skimmed greedily over the shelves, then skipped to the desk. Surely, the most important books would be there.

As he stepped to the desk, he saw it had a single drawer inlaid on top. It was locked by runes, but these had degraded over time in a way the trap door runes had not. 

Corvus pulled it open. Inside, sat a journal. 

* * *

"What's taking him for so long?" Gwen snarled as she loosed another arrow.

It hit her target dead-on, piercing a level seven ratkin in one ear and out the other. A perfect shot, but Gwen's supply of arrows was not infinite.

NightShade sent back his version of a horsey shrug.

Charm didn't answer, either. She was raking the street with her claws — and were they looking extra shiny? Almost metallic? What was that damn dragon up to? – As she took out dragon-sized handfuls of ratkin at a time.

Occasionally, when a wave of demons came dragon the street, Charm would use her breath, but Gwen could tell that she was conserving it.

NightShade was merrily squashing ratkin under hoof, though this was becoming more difficult as the higher levels appeared. Her valiant stallion was tiring. Lather foamed at his flanks.

Gwen placed her hand on his sweaty neck and pushed mana into the horse, which he immediately converted into stamina.

Nice trick, that.

NightShade flicked his ear and thanks and reared up to bring both hooves down on a level 5 ratkin, turning the creature to paste.

Another had scuttled past Charm’s lengthening claws and was gathered itself to leap at NightShade’s neck.

Gwen stopped it with an arrow.

Finally, she got the message she'd been waiting for all day:

Ding!

Congratulations! You have gained a level!

New Level: 12. XP to next level: 5/1300. Mana has increased by 5. Health has increased by 75.

You have been awarded (2) skill points!

She barely paid attention to the paltry mana gain, and immediately threw her extra points into her General Archery skill, raising it to Intermediate 62.

Level twelve being an even level, she could redistribute the experience points into another attribute. She kept twenty-five percent funneled to her Speed Attribute. She’d gained one base point already. 

Corvus was her best friend, but she never understood why he insisted on spreading his points so widely. Give her speed, horsemanship, and her bow. That was all she needed.

And if she focused on that, she didn't have to worry about the next few worrying steps along her Path.

And what those steps meant for the rest of her family.

She did not allow her thoughts to distract her from slaying ratkin. There were so many scuttling along the streets that it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Every rat killed was one less that could make its way to the noble towers.

Hopefully, that stuck-up captain would listen to Corvus and let the rest of the Towners in before they were swarmed and eaten.

And just as hopefully, those same Towners wouldn't shut the door against her and the rest of the remaining Horse Folk.

"Almost out of arrows," she told NightShade.

The stallion signaled he understood and jinked to the side to a spot clear of ratkin, patch long enough for her to slide off his back.

Nightshade did not talk to her the same way Charm did. Gwen received his feelings and occasional images — all much clearer after consuming his bonded companion essence, and occasional extras the birthing mares dropped.

Beyond that, he and Gwen were partners in every way and barely needed to speak to one another to work together.

As soon as Gwen’s feet hit the ground, she shot around, picking up fallen arrows from the downed ratkin. Her uncanny accuracy and high levels made for fewer broken arrows than otherwise could have been.

Away from the Towner guards or the other Horse Folk, she didn't have to worry about keeping to a realistic speed. That attribute was at level 25, now. Could probably keep up with a horse at a gallop, at least for a short amount of time.

Her last arrow lay buried in a ratkin which was close to Charm’s tail. The dragon had been busy swatting the beast like a man swats a fly. Closer now, Gwen saw she hadn’t been mistaken. Charm’s claws had lengthened and grown as if the ends were tipped with steel swords.

What kind of harebrained spell caused that? Had she come across essences?

"Where's Corvus?" Gwen asked. “He still in the orphanage?”

Charm didn't even turn her head to acknowledge her. "Picking out books."

"What?"

Nightshade brayed a challenge, nostrils flared. Gwen turned from the dragon. Using her speed and dexterity she, leaped to the top of an overturned wagon. From this height, she could see further down the street.

There were more ratkin coming, but nothing too unusual.

"What is it?" she asked her horse.

Rat Queen, NightShade sent back in flickering impressions of sense memory, images, and feelings. A big one.

Nodding, Gwen knocked an arrow to her bow and sighted down its shaft. She pictured the Rat Queen in her mind and poured mana into the arrow.

After her General Archery skill passed Intermediate 50 a few months back, the Paths had granted her a boon. Now, the arrows she released felt like a part of her. When she added her small amount of mana, she also added a part of her will.

She let the bowstring roll off her fingertips just as the nose of the giant Rat Queen peeked around the corner. The arrow flickered upward and curved around the corner to strike exactly where Gwen wanted. Right in the bitch queen’s eye.

The Intermediate level boon was a secret that she kept to herself, like so many others.

She planned to tell Corvus about it, but things kept getting in the way. He got so much joy out of the Paths, while she was ambivalent. For Corvus, it was a way for him to gain the magic he felt he ought to have had as a prince. He had never said as much to Gwen, but it was obvious.

Gwen’s feelings were mixed. The Paths provided a way out of a cage, and put her on equal footing with nobles she didn’t respect. And if she read the signs correctly, it was the catalyst of her eventual betrayal to her own family. 

But the skills the Path brought were handy in a fight.

The Queen screamed, and the building next to her rumbled as she hit it, thrashing.

Then the demon creature came around the corner. Blood dripped from what was left of its eye.

Species: Ratkin (Queen Rat)

Level: 49

This monster was larger than any of the ones she'd seen in the canyon. If Queen Rats this size were erupting into the city this soon into the battle as vanguard… She hated to see what lay behind them.

Charm screamed and tucked her wings back to leap at it.

The crazy dragon was going toe-to-toe with the Rat Queen, despite being a third her side. The Queen bit at Charm, and where her teeth struck, sparks flew as if the rat had chomped into metal. Stuck between two buildings, the Queen couldn't bring her terrible flail to bear.

Unfortunately, the Queen had her retinue.

A swarm of chittering, gnawing ratkin flowed around the queen and crawled up the dragon's scales, biting and clawing. Stuck fighting the Queen and the swarm, Charm was in danger of being swamped over. 

“Use your breath! Burn them!” Gwen shrieked.

"She's almost out of mana."

This came from Corvus who had emerged from the orphanage, at last, panting and sweating and all but dragging his Bag of Holding behind him. The bag bulged at every stitch.

"Here! Take this and go! I'll meet you back at the towers." With a heave, he shoved the bag in Gwen's arms. If she weren't firmly seated on NightShade, she would have staggered at the weight.

"Where you going?" she demanded. "What's in here? Bricks?"

"Books, and I'm releasing the Deadly Bouquet gas.  Starella is up on the roof over there. She'll watch for me and spread the gas around so we get as many of these ratkin as possible before we bring the building down. Get out of here! Hurry!"

He started to charge off to aid his dragon, but Gwen caught his jacket. "How do you know you can trust her?"

She hadn't forgotten the power of  Corvus's terrible mother. It would be all too easy for Starella to force the gas down his throat and rid herself of royal competition.

But Corvus just grinned at her in a sly way that made Gwen's heart skip a beat. "If she lets me die, I'll take the secret of hatching dragons with me, and she knows it."

Gwen's hand dropped away and Corvus rushed to his dragon, a dagger with deadly gas runes glowing in each hand.