Somnus IV - Chapter 20 (Patreon)

Rainbow light swirled past around Kat, disappearing with a puff as her body solidified in the dungeon.  Breath puffed out in front of her, condensing into mist that dissipated into the murky air.  A second later Kaleek appeared at her side in a flash of light followed shortly by Dorrik.

They were in a cave.  The walls and floor were covered in a gleaming layer of ice, but underneath the frozen water they were uneven and rocky, branching off into any number of small crevices and chambers.

It was a far cry from the rooms and doors that Kat was used to.  She took an experimental step and winced.  Unsurprisingly, her footing was uncertain on the slick ice.  Almost as bad was the glare.  There wasn’t much light in the room, the usual orbs that produced it were frozen over as well, but what illumination there was reflected off of everything.

“This is awful,” she remarked casually, not bothering to look back at Kaleek and Dorirk as she kept an eye on the room.  Most dungeons didn’t have ambushes in the spawning chamber, but that didn’t mean all of them.  “Any idea what we’re looking at?”

“Yes actually,” Dorrik responded, the talons of their feet clicking slightly as they dug into the ice for traction.  Silently, Kat made a note to look into getting a pair of shoes with cleats or nails in them.  “Clan Ahn doesn’t have every dungeon mapped here the way they do on the lower floors, but with the help of our companions, we were able to make good time and visit a dungeon where there are up to date records.”

“The Frigid Cavern is an Iron Tier dungeon with environmental hazards but no reported traps,” they continued cheerfully.  “The monsters are supposed to be troublesome, but fairly easy to handle once you understand their strengths and weaknesses, part of the reason we came here rather than a closer dungeon to be honest.”

“Is the environmental hazard the temperature?”  Kat asked with a shiver.  “My stamina regeneration has already stopped and I’m pretty sure I’ll start taking HP damage if I don’t find a parka or something.”

Dorrike shuffled their feet slightly, crest fluttering slightly.  Before they could say anything Kaleek cut in.

“I don’t see any problem with the temperature.  Maybe in the next city we should buy Kat a sweater.  Something nice and toasty.  Maybe with mittens attached to the sleeves by a length of yarn so she can’t lose them.”

Kat squinted at him, leaning forward to flick the big otter on the nose.

“Stop it,” she said warningly.  “I can and will use Water Jet on you.  I don’t care how cold it is, I will turn your fuzzy butt into an icicle.”

“There won’t be any need for that,” Dorrik interjected happily.  “I acquired three enchanted sticks of grease that will prevent us from feeling the effects of the cold.  Simply rub it over your skin and you won’t be able to feel the icy air.  It should even help against the attacks of the crystal spiders.”

Dorrik handed Kaleek and her rectangles wrapped up in wax, saving one for themselves.  She took the object, turning it over in her hand before unwrapping it to reveal a length of foul smelling oil.

“Really?”  She asked, wrinkling her nose as she rubbed her thumb and forefinger through the thick substance.  “Don’t you have something a little less gross?  Maybe a potion or a pill?”

“No,” Dorrik replied.  “None of the other options would fully protect us.  Before long all of us would start taking damage from the ice.  It wouldn’t be much damage, but it would add up given time.”

Kat glanced over at Kaleek.  He looked miserable.  His armor was partially removed and most of his fur was covered in the oil, leaving it clumpy and sticking tight to his skin.  The process was hardly dignified, he looked more like a drowned rat than an otter, but Kat couldn’t help but notice between shivers that her HP bar was starting to tick downward.

With a halfhearted grumble she smeared the oil into her left hand and began rubbing it on her face.  It was thick and sticky, like a mix between jell-o and motor oil.  The only thing grosser than the sensation of rubbing it into her hair and skin was the awful smell coming off of it.

By the time Kat’s face and arms were covered in the goop, her health bar was no longer moving, and her stamina was already beginning to stealthily recover.  She was just reaching up to undo the straps and buckles on her armor when the gentle click of ice on ice drew her attention.

Kat’s head snapped up just in time to see a monster scuttle along the ceiling into the room.  Its rounded yet oblong body was made of crystal or ice, translucent under segmented plates of armor except for the handful of light purple organs that pulsed with their own soft light.  Sprouting from either side of the creature were a half dozen legs, each ending in a sharp glinting point that easily dug into the hard ice of the dungeon.

“Company!”  She yelled just as it leapt from the roof of the room toward Kaleek, its body curling up into a ball sprouting spiked legs at every angle.

The desoph got his head up in time, but that was all there was time for.  The monster was moving too fast for him to get his armor back on, and his sword was plunged tip-first into the ice a pace or so away.  Kaleek crossed his arms in front of his chest, a grim expression on his face as he prepared to take on the hurtling spiked bug-thing when a blast from Water Jet knocked his assailant to the side.

He blinked through the fine mist of rapidly hardening moisture as the crystalline monster bounced once off of the icy ground before unfolding and digging in its legs in order to bring its body to a skittering stop.  It hissed back at Kat before taking a faltering step.

It managed one more before stopping entirely.  Kat felt a broad grin blossom across her face.  She didn’t know how long it would last, but the monster was covered in a thin but noticeable layer of ice from where it had been tossed about by Water Jet.  Ordinarily the spell was useful mostly for pushing things around at a distance, but Kat’s hunch had been right.  Water in a frigid environment was a formidable weapon, even if she suspected that Pseudopod wouldn’t be much use.

The bug-monster twitched once, struggling against the prison that encased its body and ending Kat’s moment of gloating.  She took a step forward, sliding the rest of the way across the uneven ice before she planted her dagger up to the hilt in the creature’s back.  The ice and the crystal resisted, but without the ability to dodge or redirect the blow, its armor wasn’t enough to stop the deadly tip of her weapon.

It twitched once, breaking some of the ice that held it in place with its death throes but ultimately unable to escape the blade that pinned it to the ground.  She waited another second or two to ensure its demise before pulling her knife out of the monster’s corpse.

She turned, a pithy remark on the tip of her tongue, only to see Dorrik’s swords scissor through the air a handful of paces from her.  The blades crossed, bisecting another crystalline bug that had dropped from its camouflaged perch on the ceiling.  A brief purple glow heralded the use of some sort of psi ability, and a chunk of writhing monster clattered to the ice on either side of Kat.

“To arms Miss Kat!” Dorrik shouted, clawed feet digging into the slick floor as they turned back around.  “The enemy is upon us!  Every crack and crevice could hide a crystal spider.  We must protect Kaleek until he can get his armor back on.”

Stone clicked on ice to her right, and Kat fired a blast of Water Jet in the general direction even as she spun.  The stream of liquid missed the creature that had created the sound.  It had six legs supporting a squat, spherical body with a scorpion-like tail that seemed to be tracking Kat’s movements.

Inspiration flashed and Kat twisted her magic, activating Water Shape to seize control of the deluge of water and curve it back toward the monster just as its tail darted forward.  A pointed crystal the size of her thumb zipped through the air, and it took every point of agility Kat had amassed to twist out of its path.

She hit the ground just as the water from her spell encompassed the ice-bug.  Pain spiked from where Kat slammed her forearm into the frozen stone, almost disrupting her control over the magic.  She bit her lower lip, focusing on the pinprick of sensation to center herself.

The monster waved its legs, slowed by the gradually freezing water.  It pushed its tail forward, seeking to break the plane of the globe so that it could launch another ranged attack at Kat.

Without hesitation, she switched her spell to Scald.  The water surrounding the monster bubbled and hissed for a fraction of a second before it exploded into a cloud of thick mist, flash cooking the horrifying insect.

Fog rolled across the room, melting ice from the ceiling even as it rapidly cooled into condensation that began pattering to the ground.  A second later, three of the bugs joined the gentle rain, falling from their perches as the rapid temperature changes interfered with their inner workings.

Dorrik lunged forward, both of their swords skewering one of the creatures before it could get its bearings.  Kat cast Crushing Fist on a twelve legged monster, pinning it to the floor as the gradually increasing sphere of gravity began to grind its segmented armor together.  The final bug had six legs and a tail, and Kat wasn’t inclined to let it live any longer than necessary.

She threw a dagger, taking a chip off of the monster’s crystalline camouflage hide and knocking it to the ground as she closed the distance.  It chirped unhappily, struggling to track Kat’s quick movements as she bounded and slid across the room in under a second.  At the last second it fired a sliver of crystal that missed her by a full pace.

Kat didn’t give it a chance to fire a second.  Her knife came down, glowing red with the power of Penetrate as it burst through the monster’s armor and skewered the barely visible purple organs inside.  It twitched once before going completely still.

“Ready!”  Kaleek shouted, pushing his armor into place with a loud ‘thunk.’  “Now where are the little buggers?  Two hours of traveling with Dorrik’s sanctimonious kin and I need to smash something.”

As if to answer the desoph, the final insect crunched under the force of Kat’s spell, its crystal armor shattering and ichor spurting out of a dozen or so new gaps that appeared in its body.  She shrugged helplessly.

“We appear to be out,”  Dorrik said helpfully.  “I will be sure to let you take the forefront during the next fight.  Crystal spiders can only do a moderate amount of damage, and I doubt they will be able to penetrate your armor.  Their speed and camouflage make them much more dangerous to agility based fighters such as Miss Kat and I.  After all, it is hard to dodge what you don’t see coming.”

“I still need to smash something,” Kaleek grumbled.  “The new members of the team are well disciplined and good fighters, but they have the humor and emotional range of a fencepost.  I swear, the three of them are going to drive me mad if we end up paired up with them long-term.”

“That should not be a problem,” Dorrik replied.  “They are only here to shepherd us to the sight of my coming of age ceremony.  That might take some time, but they will be off of our crests before too long.  As for their humor and emotional range, I do not know what you’re speaking of.  I have my history with Jaalin, but she is a cunning opponent and ally.  I find myself following her every word and action closely.  I hardly understand why you do not think she has a limited ‘emotional range.”

Kat did her best to keep a smile from her face and Kaleek failed entirely.  Dorrik’s crest was flaring and fluttering with distress as he defended their clan.

“Maybe,” Kat acknowledged, “and maybe not.  Jaalin seems a bit dismissive is all.  I appreciate her help, and I’m not going to say that she’s bad at what she does.  After you, she’s one of the most effective small group leaders I’ve worked with, and at least in the waking universe I’ve worked with at least a couple that were supposed to be world class.  Despite all of that, she has terrible bedside manner.  It always feels like she’s lecturing a very small and possibly simple child when she’s trying to explain how things work.”

“She does spend a lot of time with newborns,”  Dorrik agreed, “but they tend to sleep in nests made of soft blankets and pillows rather than beds.  A throwback to when the lokkel would rest in piles of sand lined with dried plant leaves.  A bit less scratchy and softer, but a welcome piece of nostalgia in an otherwise unforgiving world.”

Kat bit back a response as she walked over to one of the glassy monsters and rolled it over with her toe.  Her knife had penetrated its hide, and a clear gelatin specked with lavender was oozing from the wound.  Despite the extreme cold, it wasn’t even beginning to freeze, rather the ichor was pooling and filling the room with a familiar scent.

“Dorrik?” Kat asked, nodding toward the corpse at her feet.

“Oh yes!”  They replied excitedly.  “The cold resistant grease I handed you earlier is largely made of crystal spider ichor along with a number of extracts from tree bark and local fungi to improve its efficacy.  That is where the pungent aroma comes from.  If it stings the nostrils, you know it's working!

Kat shivered and eyed the stick of grease that she still held in her left hand dubiously.  Now that the effects of Scald were wearing off, the room felt even colder than before as the mist froze into a light rime that began covering every surface.  Only when her hit points began to slowly begin sinking once more did she reluctantly begin using the oil again.

It was worse than the crystal spider.  Whatever medicinal substances were added to the grease, the smell was stronger and its thick goopy consistency didn’t help.  She shuddered while rubbing it into her hair, thankful that the Tower created a new body for her every night.  Given the way the preventative stuck to everything, Kat doubted that it would ever come out on its own.

“Delightful,” Kaleek said unenthusiastically.  “It works, but next time let me try and find something a bit less disgusting.  I don’t entirely care if it isn’t quite as effective.  My pride has a price.”

“I don’t understand?”  Dorrik replied, cocking their head.  “It was half the price and at least twenty five percent more effective than all of its competitors, but the merchant seemed desperate to sell it.  A rational being would be delighted to purchase such an effective item.”

“Half the cost?”  Kaleek asked, reaching up to rub a clump of the grease on the side of his face.  “That might be the price of my pride after all.”

“It is what will make the rest of the dungeon much easier,” Dorrik said happily.  “The twelve legged crystal spiders attack physically and the six legged versions launch ranged attacks.  The real threat however is the eight legged spiders.  They can move incredibly quickly, and they emit a frost aura that damages and slows their opponents' reflexes, giving them an opening to bite their target and inject it with venom.  We are lucky to not encounter such foes yet as they are quite the challenge without proper cold protection.”

“Worse,” they continued conspiratorially, “the boss to this dungeon should be an eight legged crystal spider.  It is capable of freezing an unprotected avatar solid in fifteen to thirty seconds.  For a being protected by the grease?  It should be a fairly easy enemy to beat.  Our preparation has practically made this dungeon a free award.  It is like stealing candy from a hatchling.”

Kat slipped her armor back on with a grunt, shaking her head to herself as she began the arduous process of tightening all of its buckles to make sure that it hugged her body tightly.

“Alright,” she said, adjusting the fit on her breastplate slightly.  “If this is going to be a simple fight, that’s great, but I would suggest that we stop jinxing ourselves and get to it.”