Chapter 20: Playing The Game (Patreon)

My first shield shatters before I can do anything. The skeletons throw themselves at it with no regards for their own safety, cracking their own necks and jaws with suicidal single-minded hatred. I glance back at the hole I dug, focus on the coin at the bottom, and push a shield into it that’s just big enough to completely cover the hole.

It pops into being, and I back over it as carefully as I can. The second shield shatters not a second later, and I toss out two more skeletal coins to bolster my defenses. But I know I’m running myself low on everything I need to survive. Shields won’t get rid of these things and save my life–that’s what projectile is for.

And I’ve got all of one regular ghost quarter left to use on it.

“Shelby!” Pearl cuts in. “See if the information on the corsedragger updated!”

Good call, as usual. I summon my Class Card and tab over to the information on the corsedragger, but before I can scroll down to get a look, another one of my shields shatters. The skeletal shark-dogs look just as haggard as a second ago, but they’re still going just as strong.

Pearl gulps loudly enough for me to hear. “Um, do it quickly, please.”

“Going as fast as I can, considering the circumstances.” I reply with my nerves set on edge. The sound of another shield shattering almost gives me a heart attack, but I still manage to scroll down to access the info I’m looking for.

Observed Spell: Funeral Hunt. When the corpsedragger loses control of its magic, it goes berserk and devours the creature to create skeletal wraith-hounds. These wraith-hounds relentlessly and single-mindedly hunt their targets until they run out of magical energy, regardless of what physical damage they seem to take.

Outlast them. That’s what I have to do. But there’s one tiny problem, and it’s breaking down my ability to outlast these things. If my shields break like stale crackers in the face of the onslaught, then there’s absolutely no way I’m outlasting anything. And if they still have the tele-dash that the not-dead corpsedragger did, running won’t do any good either.

So… what options do I have? Hide? No–they can definitely see me, and now I can’t use my shields to fool them. Fight back? Shit, it’s a fine idea, but if I find out they’re nearly immune to projectiles like the actual corpsedragger was, then I’m dead meat. Or… maybe… um… damn it.

Just like that, I’m out of options. A harsh reminder that I’m extremely under equipped to deal with any real threats. I bite my lip and open my Class Card to check how many skeletons I’ve got left, but it’s really not looking good. My reserves are down to single digits if I don’t count the one in my hand, and from how quickly these monsters are decimating my shields, that accounts for about a five minutes worth of safety.

“Need something here, Pearl.” I say warily and keep backing up. My feet touch glass once more, and a glance down into the hole sparks the start of an idea. Well, the continuation of another idea. 

“Um, okay, I can think of something. You have your coins… and… um… I have nothing else I can really help with… so… um… we put that together, and we get… um…”

I wave her off as the details start to fall in place. “Actually, nevermind. I think I’ve got something.”

Pearl lets out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. I don’t know if you could tell, but I really didn’t have any ideas there.”

I snort out a laugh. “What? No. You sounded so confident.”

She blushes and looks away. “Sorry for not being a tactical genius like you.”

Tactical genius? Me? Ha, yeah, right. A tactical genius wouldn’t have trapped herself in a tunnel with some murder-remants and only a few skeleton coins to work with. And that genius definitely wouldn’t have forgotten to flip the shitload of Worth she got for killing the mass grave, indirectly putting her in the exact situation she’s in now. Shit, not even indirectly–if I’d doubled that Worth, I would’ve had a hundred more skeletons to stall out these remnants with. And I wouldn’t have put myself in goddamn debt just to have a chance at fighting the corpsedragger in the first place.

Never, ever, forget to do that again. It cost me so much. For no reason at all.

I bite back the self-directed frustration and place two coins on either side of the big hole. I put shields into them that’ll funnel the remnants into the pit as long as they don’t just barrel blindly forward. The spells pop into being, stretching down the tunnel and almost touching the one remaining shield that the remnants haven’t broken through. The two angled shields don’t quite touch each other, leaving just enough room for a single coin to break through.

No time to waste. I summon two more skeletons, dispel the shield over the hole, and ready myself. If the things still have access to the tele-dash, it’s probably completely over anyway. But they’ve just been smashing themselves up against the shields like mindless zombies. It’s the only real info I’ve got on them, and I’m combining it with the hope that defending against a projectile will use up some of their magic reserves.

It’s a gamble–I’m not going to deny that. But when my only options are to accept death, hope ten shields are enough to wait these things out, or pray for some bullshit divine intervention? Hell, it might be a gamble, but it’s not giving up.

The shield shatters, forcing my mind into overdrive. Dark awareness closes in tight, hyperfocusing everything into properly executing ‘trap the corpsedragger’ version two. My breaths are calm and even as I face down the pack of remnants. They’re running instead of teleporting. One shoulders into my barrier and snaps at it, but when it can keep running forward, it does. Even when it shoves the next closest remnant towards the center of the tunnel.

That remnant then shoves the next. And the next. Until the entire pack is running in an awkward clump straight towards the hole my projectile made. A grin crawls up my cheeks when the awareness doesn’t even react. I push a heavy, stationary projectile into the coin in my right hand and flick it into the small gap. Before it even starts to shatter into the mass of utter destruction I know it will become, I swap the other skeleton into my right hand and put a projectile into it that’ll fly straight down when it forms.

I flick that one, too, just as the awareness flares. One of the remnants reaches the edge of the pit. My heart rises into my throat as instead of falling, like I’d hoped, it jumps. I instinctively take a step back, but my eyes are frozen to the scene that plays out before me.

All the other wraiths jump. But not as one unified mass. Like a bunch of toddlers trying to get into a pool, they shove each other and bumble into the wrong paths. Then they slam into the barrier, snarl at me, and yelp as they fall into the pit. Both of my projectiles spark to life. Cherry red magic flies everywhere, coating everything in a sheen of red that glistens like blood and stinks like fresh meat. But the noises don’t stop.

The projectiles run out their energy, then disappear with an audible ‘whoosh’. Hateful barks and snarls fly up at me from the hole, but they sound… further than before. Much further. I stand there for a few seconds, gathering my courage to go take a look. I find it in the form of putting up another shield over the hole before I bend down and see why the remnants haven’t popped out to try and murder me.

A much, much deeper hole answers my questions. All the remnants scrabble against frozen sand trying to get some kind of hold as they bear their fangs at me in anger. One of them’s on the ground fading away, but instead of rising up like steam, the mana in it flows down into the sand.

“Why can’t they get up?” Pearl asks with far more confidence now that there’s distance between us and the remnants. “We saw them break your shields like thin glass. I’d get it if it was glass, but it’s just frozen sand.”

“Hey, that same sand had three corpses in it. They had to get in there somehow.” I say, but truth be told, I’m pretty damn confused too. “Weird thing is that they seem like they’ve got a lot more raw power than the corpsedragger. But look–they literally can’t put a scratch in the sand.”

Pearl leans in a little, and from her thoughtful hum, she’s seeing the same things I am. My eyes wander over to the parts of the tunnel that the corpsedragger was down, and sure enough, there’s a bunch of claw marks on the glass. They’re not huge, but they’re definitely there. Compared that to the stretch where the remnants were–which is pretty much pristine–and you’ve got one weird scenario.

“I think they can’t really damage inanimate objects.” Pearl theorizes. “Spells and you, sure, but something like the glass or sand just isn’t taking any damage. I’d bet they’re super specialized for killing the thing that killed the corpsedragger.”

“Sure, but that doesn’t explain the painted danes stuck in the sand.” I mutter in thought. “Or what managed to make that tunnel. We assumed it was the corpsedragger, but that just… doesn't feel right. It was too lithe and small for the tunnel. Built for speed and quick kills, not muscly drawn-out engagements, you know?”

Pearl shudders and looks away from the pit of dying wraiths. “If the corpsedragger didn’t dig the tunnel, and the sand has some kind of… magical cold-powers this deep down, then I really hope we don’t find what made the tunnel.”

“Same here, Pearl.”

I grunt and stand as the last of the wraiths start to go still. I watch the entire time, just in case it decides to trick me somehow, but it doesn’t look like that’s the case. And when the last of the cherry red magic bleeds away, a screen appears before my eyes to confirm the corpsedragger’s death.

Completed Quest: Close Your Eyes, Cold One 1/20.

Reward: one Mind.

Next Target: 10 threat.

“Oh, it’s dead. That’s a nice convenient part of the skill. Quest. The quest that’s only there because of the skill.” Pearl says chipperly, but it hides some obvious regret at forcing me into debt. “Did you get any Worth for killing it?”

I shrug and walk over to the skeletal remains of the corpsedragger. “Doesn’t look like there’s anything to convert to Worth like the risen grave, but who knows? Maybe it’ll just be worth a lot since it was such a pain in the ass to kill.”

With a thought and a brush of my fingertips, I deposit the corpsedragger skeleton. It flashes and disappears, then reappears as an extra image inside of my inventory that isn’t on any one slot. I swap it with a sapling, put it in my backpack, then press on the skeleton to see what it’s actually worth.

Cherry Corpsedragger Skeleton(drained) Stored.

Predicted Worth: 148.

If killed without destroying the creature’s magic, it has a far lesser value.

…I’ll be honest, I thought that was going to say ‘far greater value’ when I started reading that sentence. Not really sure why it’s more valuable after I got rid of all the magic inside of it, but I’m not going to complain. Except for the fact that there’s no extra Worth involved. So I’ll complain a little.

“This thing is Worth less than the mass risen grave. And the only reason that was a pain in the ass to kill is because I didn’t know how to use shield for shit back then.”

Pearl shrugs.

“Things aren’t always fair. When you fought the risen grave, if you hadn’t had any long range options, you would’ve had a way harder time. And just like this–if you had some armor, or maybe even a close-range weapon, you might not have struggled with the corpsedragger at all.” She says. “And, well, there’s also the fact that a lot of quest monsters give way bigger payouts than random powerful ones. Unless that powerful one gives a quest when it died, which this one didn’t.”

I sigh and start down the tunnel once more. “So you’re saying that was a pointless fight, and that even though it was probably a hell of a lot deadlier than the risen grave, I got a much worse payout?”

“If the information I have hasn’t changed over the years–yes.”

Probably to disincentivize grinding random stuff, if I had to guess. But even that depends on what kind of a world this is–if the system can make monsters whenever and wherever it pleases, then it could just control what spawns to keep me from getting too strong. If it’s like earth, though, where everything’s got a limited number and takes a while to reproduce… then I guess this is one way to do it.

A pang of a headache rocks my mind as the dark awareness dissipates. I groan and lean on the wall, trying to steady myself as the world swims around me. Blinking does nothing to the slight blur that’s overtaken my vision. Everything feels a little off-kilter, like I’m standing on a tiny fishing boat and seriously reconsidering going out to the ocean.

“That would be the backlash I was warning you about. It won’t get… much… worse after this, but it will stick around for… um…” Pearl knits her fingers together and looks away. “Close to an entire day.”

My groan reaches a crescendo and I shove myself off the wall with far more effort than it should’ve taken. Pearl puts her hands against my head in an effort to steady me, but it does about as much as a snail trying to keep a trash can from falling over.

“Don’t push yourself.” She gently urges. “You just got rid of the immediate danger. It’s safe to stop and rest for a little bit.”

I shake my head ever so slightly, but even that brings on some nausea. I gulp and keep my head pointed straight down the tunnel, force my legs to move, and ignore the throbbing pain inside of my skull.

“There has to be something at the end of this. A clearing, or a ruined settlement, or something.” I say slowly and quietly. My own voice is almost too much, but Pearl’s… isn’t for some reason. “Use your navigation powers and take a look, pretty please?”

Pearl purses her lips and shakes her head. “I already looked earlier. There’s absolutely nothing but empty tunnels for a few miles. Please, Shelby, just take a little break. You didn’t sleep anywhere near enough last night to shake off what the risen grave and the beacon did to your body.”

“No. We need… safety. I’m not waiting out in the open for another corpsedragger to show up and rip my throat out.” I insist. “I’m technically in possession of you right now, so maybe you can get the same bonuses from the all-seeing ice as I do. Please, just… give it a try?”

She stares at me. I put on my best pleading expression, but from the way she winces and looks away, I guess I look a lot worse than I think.

“Okay, Shelby. But if I don’t find anything, will you take a break?”

I nod ever so slightly. “As long as you tell me the truth.”

Pearl closes her eyes and takes a slow breath. She keeps them tightly shut for a few seconds, then opens them a moment later. Frost lines her eyes like extremely exaggerated eyelashes combined with eyeliner, and she lets out a gasp of disbelief.

“I can see so far!” She whispers excitedly, then hisses. “Ooh, but it’s really cold. Really, really cold.”

“Pearl.”

“Right, right, actually looking for things. Sorry.” She apologizes, then focuses once more. “I can see… about four miles worth of empty tunnels. Completely empty–no blockages, monsters, or… even scratches on the glass. They end about half a mile from here, so the corpsedragger must’ve made its home here for some reason.”

I wince as a particularly horrible throb darkens a corner of my vision. “Really need the short version here.”

She closes her mouth and nods. “Sorry. Um… nothing… nothing… small clearing with a sandy pool… whoa. What’s that?”

From how her voice drips with interest and excitement, colour me intrigued. “What’s what?”

“It looks like… one of our workshops! Not a little one that only does repairs, either! Someone must’ve put this in after I got quest item-ed!” She turns to me and grins. “I can’t completely see inside, since there’s a lot of magic protecting it, but it has to be so much safer than out here!”

“Do I want to ask how far it is?”

“Only about six miles from here. I know you can last that long.”