Mined Games chapter 32 (Patreon)

The forest was less dangerous than I’d have thought, at least along the paths. I’d half expected to be set upon by swarms of terrifying creatures, but following the map we’d been given DID let us bypass most of the danger. We almost got attacked a time or two even then, but Cece’s thermal vision saved us the hassle, and we made pretty good time reaching the area we needed to get to. 


Arriving there was only the beginning of the issue though, something that became clear when we stopped at the edge of the swamp where the Moon Vipers nested. A swamp that stretched for miles based on what little we could see.


It was almost beautiful, honestly. Twisted dark trees rising from brown muck, with small islands of overgrown land dotting the whole place. The trees were festooned with vines shot through with veins of toxic glowing green, and on some of the islands I could see pools of the stuff collecting, bubbling thickly as it hissed ominously into the fetid air.


"I don't suppose the map has any specific dens listed?" I asked hopefully. But I knew better. This was their habitat, but if the mapmaker had known where a den was they'd have cleaned it out ages ago.


Sure enough, Cecily shook her head. "No. Not even any notes on the Vipers. Based on the terrain though, I'd assume that they probably either feed off of or bathe in that green substance."


I groaned. "Then why the fuck are they called Moon Vipers? What does the moon have anything to do with this shithole?" Damned flowery naming sense. Couldn't they have called them 'Green Goo Death Snakes' or something?


"It's a symptom." Said a low, husky voice off to one side. I squaked (in a manly and not at all high pitched fashion) and jumped about three feet in the air, but I had a knife drawn and was mid cast for Blink as I looked around. 


The amused olive skinned girl in the dark cloak smiled at me cheerily, eyebrow raised as if curious to see what I'd do.


Which, of course, was nothing. Because unless I missed my guess this girl was a Caster ranked mage.


Her eyes, the same bright almost hypnotic green as the goo, shone with amusement and her full lips twisted with pleasure at seeing me squirm. "Hello rookies. Fancy meeting you here."


I swallowed. "Did we come to the wrong place? They told us this place only have tier two beasts. We're just hunting Moon Vipers. If we intruded on your hunt we can leave." Assuming she LET us leave.


She just giggled. "Not at all. This swamp is one of the few places naturally occurring poison crystals can be found nearby. Higher tier crystals are at the bottom though, so no need to worry about the guardians." Her eyes narrowed, head cooking as she stared at me. "You seem…odd. I can't quite put my finger on why. I'm Maddie by the way. Madeline Hartfell. I'm your upperclassman."


I nodded politely, my heart pounding. Could she somehow tell my heritage? Or my mana type? Speaking of mana types. She'd just said. "Wait…there's a poison mana type?"


She smirked at me sweetly. "There's a mana type for everything, but it can be difficult to find concentrations of more esoteric mana types. Finding 'sorrow' type crystals, for instance, almost always requires some fairly horrible things to happen in a location. It's why certain mana types are…frowned upon. Blood, torment, etc. Death and Poison occur naturally in some places, so they aren't quite as strongly discouraged, though people tend to think of us as oddballs."


That was interesting. I imagined that really obscure mana types weren't used for formulas often. While condensing the crystals would be simple enough with neutral mana to fuel it, finding spells would be nearly impossible without animals to use as research materials.


"So…" I said leadingly. "The Moon Vipers? You were telling us why they were called that?"


She smirked at me. "Was I? That doesn't sound like me." At my slump, she giggled again. "You two are so new to this. It's precious. Moon Vipers are called that because their bite is extremely venomous. It creates a bright spot in your vision that makes it look like there's a second moon in the sky."


I winced. "How…pleasant. I don't suppose you could help us collect some of them?" I gave her my biggest most charming hopeful smile.


Which did nothing. She just giggled again. "Sorry. If I do your jobs for you how will you learn." She looked us over, biting her lip in indecision. "Although… I suppose someone did help me out as a newbie. Tell you what. I'll stick around for a few fights. See what you're working with, and I'll save you if things get bad, but you owe me one. Mmkay?"


Blank favors were dangerous, but so were venomous snakes living in toxic swamps, so I felt decent about accepting her terms. "Done." I said firmly. Then I pulled up short, looking over at Cece. "I mean. I accept. Cecily can make her own call, I wouldn't think to make a decision like that for her."


My friend gave me a small, soft smile. "Your concern is noted and appreciated. But it's fine. The chance to learn from an upperclassman is a welcome one. I'm sure miss Hartfell has plenty to teach us. I've never heard of the Hartfell family by the way. Is it a small clan?"


"Super small." Said Maddie with a wide grin. "There's only one member in the whole world." She didn't seem offended, and cackled as Cecily flinched. "I'm an orphan.  Found my formula in an old book, and I've been sneaking out here since I was an Acolyte. Dangerous as shit, but it let me get ahead of most of my peers. Not many with my mana type, so the guild was excited to have me."


I nodded. "I'm the same. Spatial mana. I've never heard of poison enchantments. What kinds of things can you make?"


She laughed, this one more snicker than giggle. "Poison shit, obviously. Lots of trap materials, palisades, arrows, lots of mixed enchantments. Poison fire, poisoned ice. And various mana poisons that can corrupt mana crystal within the body temporarily and prevent spell usage."


That all sounded terrifying. Just as useful as spatial artifacts and WAY more versatile. Of course, I might be biased, since I had my inventory anyway, and it appeared much better than any spatial artifact I'd heard of.


Before I could ask more, she waved me off. "Questions on your own time kids. You'd better get started if you want me to watch out for you. I don't have unlimited time." The statement was odd, and it made me wonder if there was time mages. Probably not. You needed to study crystals to make formuli and I wasn't even sure how time crystals would form. Where did you find areas where time was concentrated. Though to be fair where did you find areas where space concentrated. 


Still thinking of the possibilities, I started to make my way into the swamp. Walking to the edge, I jumped over to one of the islands, the magic for my Blink spell already mostly formed inside my knife.


Cece trailed behind, we'd agreed she would play ranged defense, since her fire spells worked well at a distance. My Blink spell would let me escape a bad situation if necessary.


It turned out to be VERY necessary, because as I stepped onto the first island, I sensed a brief movement.


Looking up, I saw a glowing green snake with bright silver eyes lunging right at me. On instinct I looked past the thing and triggered Blink, landing ten feet behind the snake, right on the edge of the damned swamp. 


I forced myself not to panic, leaping back at an angle in case the snake tried to lunge again, which I did.


I was already knitting together an arrow spell as the thing turned around, coiling for another strike. I wanted to cast a second spell, but I wasn't nearly good enough at control to use a second focus.


Deciding to take a risk, I started constructing the Blink spell internally, readying a demon cast. Rather than. Launch it immediately though, I launched the arrow, targeting the thing's eye.


It flinched back from the release of energy, the attack only scratching the eye as I launched my Blink spell, casting it with my body instead of a focus. 


There was a dull throb as I used the spell, but nothing like the horrible tearing I'd heard would happen if you cast with your body. My tolerance was doing its job.


I didn't have time to focus on that though, because the Blink took me right up next to the snake, which had its eye closed as it tried to adjust to the damage. I leapt straight up, my powerful crystal enhances legs carrying me up the three or so feet to the serpent's head.


Wrapping my legs around it, I jammed my knife into the soft palate as it roared, but I felt my arm speared on a fang.


I let go, falling off the snake and hitting the ground hard on my back as I screamed. My arm was on FIRE. My vision had gone black, a bright spot of white blazing in the middle of my darkened sight like the moon over an endless unbroken night.


I could vaguely hear Cecily yelling for me as my screams ripped from my throat, so loud I was worried I might tear something. 


Then…suddenly it stopped. The pain receded, the darkness faded, and the moon began to vanishing. I laid there after the agony ended, muscles twitching, chest heaving, phantom fire rolling through my veins and I tried not to shudder. 


"Well…you're not boring at least." Said Maddie's amused voice. "Kind of stupid. But not boring. I can work with stupid. Learn anything?"


She was standing above me, a ball of green glowing liquid floating above her fingers. The poison that had been in my veins, I realized.


"Don't stab snakes in the mouth?" I said wryly. My voice was hoarse from screaming and my throat hurt, but I pushed all that down.


Rolling her eyes, she pulled me to my feet. "Well as long as you learned SOMETHING. For future reference, your first instinct was right, you should have gone for the eye again. Maybe not a perfect solution since it would be guarding that, but much less idiotic than what you did do."


I winced. "Yeah. That makes sense." I saw her glancing at the knife. The golden metal shining with snake blood. The snake was dead now, of course, though I hadn't noticed that until just now, what with all the agonizing pain. I handed her the knife to look at.


She whistled. "Nice Form. Saturation is shit though. You make this?" At my nod she made an interested sound. "I want one of these I think. Not right away, a tier two knife won't do shit for me, but eventually." She flipped it over, catching the blade and offering it to me hilt first. "In exchange, I'll teach you how to use one of these. Or two, depending on your preference."


I grinned at her widely. I'd been looking for a teacher, and if all she wanted was a knife, I could do that. With the magic forge I could make any kind of knife I could find a crystal for. Or other stuff probably, but I mostly used knives.


Holding out my hand, I nodded. "Deal, but you have to stay and keep helping until the mission is done. I'm Caleb Rourke by the way. Nice to meet you." I watched for signs of recognition on her face but saw none. That was good, if she'd been the one trying to frame me I'd have been screwed. I doubted a Caster needed to though, they could just kill me out here where no one would know. It was nice to be able to trust new friends, even if it was because they were too strong to possibly need to lie to you.