Chapter 70: Don’t Mine If I Do (Patreon)

We were surrounded by armed soldiers, standing in the middle of the mine-covered camp of the enemy. Nearest to us were a handful of Infernals, looking bloodthirsty as ever, and further away were the bow-wielding Humans looking ready to get rid of me. And, of course, by our feet were the countless metal mines, ready to explode the moment our feet touched them. Our enemies somehow weren’t triggering them, something I suspected was related to the copper rings they all wore.

One of the Humans shot, and the arrow soared toward me with a blue magical force surrounding it — they probably used a Martial Art, or an Enchanted bow. I ducked down just before the arrow pierced my head, and ran forward.

Then all the hells broke loose. The Infernals charged, and the rest of the Humans loosed their arrows. Four Infernals seemed specifically intent on attacking me, and so I decided to enact my plan on them.

I scanned the ground for the nearest mine. This was either a great idea, or total suicide. I stomped on it, starting the one second timer until it exploded, then I let my foot slip off and used my toes to flick the thin plate of Enchanted metal up into the air. Then, I spun around and kicked it. It shot straight at the Infernals and exploded almost immediately after. It didn’t quite have the time to get to them before blowing up, so its blast didn’t hurt them much. However, it did blow up near another mine, and its explosion set off a chain reaction, blowing up that mine, and another that was near that one. The string of detonations rocked the ground and sent the Infernals stumbling back.

“Yes!” I laughed, excited and relieved that my plan didn’t kill me.

You have been stabbed by a point. 29 damage.

Your Health is 197.

“Fuck!” I winced at the arrow that’d been shot straight into my shoulder. I turned around to see two more arrows flying for my head. I quickly shot a Ray of Frost at each, but one of my rays missed, and the arrow it was aimed at continued forward and cut my cheek.

You have been sliced by a point. 14 damage.

Your Health is 183.

“Shit,” I stumbled back, still taking care to avoid accidentally stepping on a landmine. I could hear the sound of explosions and fighting coming behind me from Erani and the Dryad, no doubt fighting their own battles, but I didn’t have the freedom to help – or even look. One of the Infernals that hadn’t been hit by my explosion stepped up and swung at me. Its foot landed right on one of the landmines as it did, but the device obviously didn’t go off. I stepped back to avoid the hit, and had to avert my step from hitting another of the explosives, almost causing me to fall to the ground because of the awkward movement.

I frowned in frustration. It was so unfair that they could just ignore those. That was the whole point of them putting them here, sure, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. It seemed insanely risky, anyway. Sure, they wouldn’t accidentally set them off by themselves, but, as had already been shown, they were so close together that they could set off chain reactions when activated and set off even more of the mines. It didn’t look like Erani’s Firebolts set them off – they were probably specially designed to only go off from their own explosions. But still, that just seemed even more reckless. What if there was a massive explosion that blew this whole place up?

But, well, I guessed that if that happened, it’d probably kill me, too. And that was their goal, wasn’t it? The Demons were no doubt willing to kill as many people as necessary to get rid of me.

The Infernal swung again, but because of the mines surrounding me, there wasn’t any way for me to step out of the way. Instead, I put up my arms to try and parry the blow. Surprisingly, that seemed to work better than I’d expected it to, and the Infernal’s attack was repelled as though it was half as strong as it should’ve been.

I shot off a few Rays of Frost at the Infernal to distract it as I carefully backed my way through the mine-covered area.

You have struck Level 23 Infernal for 48 damage using Ray of Frost.

You have cursed Level 23 Infernal with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 6.7.

23.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 404.

You have struck Level 23 Infernal for 50 damage using Ray of Frost.

You have cursed Level 23 Infernal with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 6.7.

23.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 381.

You have struck Level 23 Infernal for 51 damage using Ray of Frost.

You have cursed Level 23 Infernal with Ray of Frost. For the next 5 seconds, its Dexterity score is lowered by 6.7.

23.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 357.

I was trying to get to the edge of their camp. The moment I got out of the camp and the minefield, I’d be able to flee at full speed and get away without worrying about the explosives or the fire. The problem was getting there. I was only about fifteen paces away from being free, but those were fifteen long paces. I stepped through, occasionally ducking or shooting a Ray of Frost to avoid an arrow, and also trying to move fast enough to keep out of the Infernal’s reach.

I was making good progress, until I looked over and saw a Human soldier sprinting at me, sword drawn. I dodged another swing by the Infernal and shot another Ray of Frost at the Demon, bringing my Mana down to 288.

Then, the soldier stepped up to me, once again ignoring the mines littering the ground, and swung his sword diagonally down so it would cut across my chest. I couldn’t step back to dodge – not without looking away to make sure I’d be stepping in a safe place – so I once again had to resort to raising my arm to parry the strike.

You have been sliced by a blade. 34 damage.

Your Health is 149.

The sword cut into my arm, but the angle kept it from going in too deep. Still, my Health was getting low enough that it wasn’t protecting me from hits as much anymore, and I could tell that another hit like that could do some serious damage. I managed to keep the blade from hitting anything vital, though, so in the short-term, I was okay.

I stole a glance at the ground to check if it was safe to step back. It seemed clear for a pace or two, so I moved back to get some distance from my two attackers as I clutched the wound on my arm. My shoulder still hurt from the arrow that was stabbed into it, too.

The soldier took another swing at me, grunting with effort, but with the little bit of space I’d bought myself, I could just barely maneuver around it. I cast Crippling Chill on him as I dodged the blade, hoping to trip him up in the middle of his attack.

You have cursed Level 9 Human Swordsman with Crippling Chill. For the next 15 seconds, he loses 7.76 Health and 6.21 Stamina each second, and his Dexterity score is lowered by 15.5.

56.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 298.

But he, like the Infernals, seemed relatively unfazed by the Spell. He definitely moved a bit slower and seemed a bit less coordinated, but normally I saw people tripping over the weight of their bodies the moment the Spell hit them. Sure, he was a Level 9 Melee Class, so his Dexterity would be pretty decent, but it should have been enough of an impact to much more noticeably impair him.

So I resorted to taking another careful step back and shooting him with a Ray of Frost, lowering his Dexterity even more and covering his dominant shoulder with a layer of frost. With the extra debuff, even with whatever was helping resist it, he was obviously feeling the effects of his sapped Dexterity. As he struggled to lift his sword back up, I stepped forward and punched him across the face

You have struck Level 9 Human Swordsman for 15 damage using your Fist.

But then, the Infernal I’d been trying to keep away from caught back up to me, now that I’d focused my magic on the soldier. Before I could do anything else to the man, the Demon stepped up and swung its massive fist down at me, forcing me away. It swung again with a grunt, and I was forced back even further. I didn’t have much room until I was in danger of stepping on another mine.

“Shit,” I muttered and glanced around the battlefield, looking for help. The Dryad was fighting with the Archers, zipping between them and making use of both her speed to dodge their shots, and her close-ranged fighting style to disrupt them any time they started to organize themselves. Judging by the dismembered bodies and buckets of blood that covered the surrounding ground, she was winning.

But she was too far away at this point to help me. Instead of sticking with us in our goal to get to the other side of the camp and escape into the forest, she’d gone off hunting down the enemies throughout the entire camp. Hells, she probably didn’t even know what our goal was here. She might’ve thought that Erani and I really were here to kill every last Demon and Human in the entire blockade.

Erani, on the other hand, was much closer. She was hunkered down behind a broken-down ballista, using it for cover from a group of Archers that the Dryad hadn’t yet killed. She was holding back a few Infernals and Swordsmen from attacking her using her Explosive Firebolt, which seemed incredibly effective at blasting them back whenever they got too close.

I ducked under another attack by the Infernal as the soldier got back to his feet. Soon enough, I’d have to face off against both, and I wasn’t confident in my ability to do that when I couldn’t even move around without looking directly downward.

“Erani!” I shouted back at her. She looked over and saw my predicament. I ducked down and hoped she saw what I wanted. Moments later, I was proved to have hoped correctly, and a Firebolt slammed into the Infernal, blowing it back and sending it tumbling over itself.

I immediately lunged at the soldier, tackling him to the ground and activating Noxious Grasp. He yelped in surprise and pain when I toggled the Spell on, and he fought to throw me off. He had a higher Strength Stat than me for sure, but mine wasn’t abysmally low – it’d been increased to 15 by the random Stat increases I’d gained from Recursive Growth – so I could still put up a fight. And with his still-lowered Dexterity, the quick drain of Stamina from Noxious Grasp and Crippling Chill, and Venomous Grasp doubling it all, he was growing weaker and weaker by the second.

As we fought, he managed to wrestle one of his hands from my grasp and punched me in the face with a gauntleted fist.

You have been hit with a fist. 22 damage.

Your Health is 127.

Crippling Chill has worn off of Level 9 Human Swordsman.

You have struck Level 9 Human Swordsman for 116 damage and drained 124 Stamina over the course of 15 seconds using Crippling Chill.

It also seemed like Crippling Chill’s fifteen seconds were up. I noticed the Stamina drain on the Spell was much higher than expected – it was normally smaller than damage, not larger – but then I remembered that, for some of the Spell’s time, the soldier had been infected with Venomous Grasp, which doubled Stamina drain. So it’d increased Crippling Chill’s effectiveness for that time, too.

Still, despite his lower Stamina, my opponent got a new light in his eyes now that the Dexterity debuff was no more. It was like a massive weight had just been lifted off of him. He swung at me again with renewed ferocity, but I managed to move my head out of the way at the last moment to avoid being hit. I needed to end this soon.

I pulled back and wrapped a hand around his face, palm touching his nose and eye, and cast Ray of Frost some number of times that I didn’t bother counting. The beams shot straight into his face, dealing a perfect 53 damage each time. He screamed in pain as his face was covered in ice from the repeated impacts of the Spell in the exact same spot. He may have had the Stamina to punch at me another time, but he obviously didn’t have enough to fight me off entirely.

After the last ray, he stopped moving, and I got a notification.

You have struck Level 9 Human Swordsman for 180 damage and drained 181 Stamina over the course of 11.1 seconds using Noxious Grasp.

52.2 Mana Cost. Your Mana is 63.

You have slain Level 9 Human Swordsman.

Due to killing a member of your own species, you have earned 0 XP.

I sighed. I didn’t like killing my fellow man. I didn’t know his circumstances, whether he truly hated me or if he was being forced into this by the kingdom, whether he was fighting to protect a family, nothing. But it had to be done. When he attacked me, we entered an agreement that we were going to try and kill each other. He knew it was possible he would die. I didn’t like killing people, but if they forfeited that right to safety by attacking me, I would do what I had to.

I glanced over. The Infernal that Erani had blown up was getting back to its feet. I’d have to hurry. I’d killed that man instead of just fleeing from him for a specific reason, and I hoped it would pay off. Examining the corpse’s hand, I saw it had what I needed. So, I slipped the bronze ring off his finger, and then hurriedly stuffed it onto mine. It didn’t fit perfectly, but it didn’t need to in order to take effect.

You are now using Enchanted Item: Ring of Buoyancy

You have the following effects:

While wearing this ring, your weight is decreased by 70%.

I immediately felt the Enchantment’s effects. My entire body was lighter. I could move more easily, my feet dug less into the ground, and I generally felt less dragged down by the world around me. No wonder these guys didn’t react as much to my Dexterity-debuffing effects – that would pretty much only cancel out the effects of the ring. Right now I felt incredibly agile and like it would be trivial to move from one place to another, so if my Dexterity got lowered, it’d probably just feel like it was back to normal.

And it was also no wonder why they kept getting blown back so far from Erani’s Firebolts. If they weighed so much less, they’d obviously be much more susceptible to the force of explosions.

But that still left the question of why they didn’t activate the mines. There wasn’t anything on here about not triggering Enchantments on other items, which would have been said if it had been the case. If the mines triggered on contact, how were they avoiding getting blown up whenever they stepped on them?

…Unless they weren’t triggered on contact at all. I looked down at the corpse of the man next to me.

Sorry buddy, I thought. Your body’s being involuntarily donated to scientific experimentation.

I grabbed the body and lifted it up into my arms, the action slightly easier due to the weight of my own body being so much less. Then I turned to face the Infernal, which had gotten to its feet by now and begun charging at me. I took a step forward, right up to a mine that lay between us, and dropped the body. Then I turned and ran.

About a second later, just as predicted, the mine blew up, throwing the Infernal back, and me off my feet and into the air. That proved that, even if it didn’t explicitly say anything about it, these rings were what prevented them from triggering those mines. And it also proved that they were the reason they were so affected by explosions, as I found myself thrown much further back than I should have been. My semi-weightless body flipped through the air and tumbled uncontrollably into the ground, and I found myself slamming into multiple of those Enchanted explosives along the way.

I braced myself, but nothing happened. No explosions. So I was immune now, too. And I was pretty sure I knew how, at that point. The mines weren’t contact-triggered, they were weight-triggered. And they seemed to be tuned so that they would only trigger upon being pushed on by the weight of a person at normal gravity, not someone with the rings.

But now that I was wearing a ring, I could walk freely across the mines. It was time to finally get out of here.