Chương 23: Phase Two

The spiderlings skittered towards Malachi, their faces splitting open in vertical slits to reveal mouths with rows of sharp teeth like a shark. Each spiderling was about the size of a medium dog, but there were a lot of them, and he didn't want them biting down. Their black-carapaced bodies were hard to see in the dim light, but he could also see weird faintly glowing sacs bulging out of their thoraxes.

The first one leapt at Malachi, but they were no different than the mantises he'd slaughtered, and he met it mid-leap with a swing of his sword. The creature split in half, and a noxious green cloud erupted as the sacs burst. Poison resisted! Fuck. He moved forward to cut open the next one before it could leap, but the poison cloud from the first one was still spreading. Conditions: Poison x1 (magical). Also one of your bones is fractured but I don't know which one because you failed your high school anatomy class.

Fuck off, SERA, he thought, slicing through another spiderling that leapt at him. His poison count went up to two, and he coughed as the cloud of gas passed over him. Malachi began retreating back as more spiderlings ran at him, using the silk curtains to block how many could come at him at once. There was a flash of spectral blue and crimson red light. One of Arisone's spells, he thought. I hope her plan isn't to just use the thorns curse on me and hope everything dies while beating on me before I do.

If that was the plan, he was fucked. These were spiders with shark mouths, not ants. One of the spiderlings got tangled in webbing as Malachi stepped around a corner, cutting open another one. The poison cloud seemed to spread slowly but linger, so he needed to move around in a circle, retreating after each kill. Hopefully, by the time he made a full circuit, the poison clouds would be gone. He'd fought an MMO boss where that was the basic strategy. The problem was he also had to deal with the giant chimera-thing.

Another spiderling fell to his blade, and then he saw movement behind one of the veils. By its size, he knew what it was. He dove to the side as the Warden's chimera charged through, barely slowed down by the silk tangles. Its rat head snapped at the air where he'd been, while its weird trunk-like legs stomped about. There was a hissing sound, and a green cloud of spores bloomed out of the fungus-head. Malachi retreated back again, passing through two poison clouds.

He gutted another spiderling, then punted another that tried to go after his leg. His poison count was at four, but his health was still, surprisingly, at 'not great.' That changed as the chimera charged again, ripping down a silk curtain with the snake head and then ramming into him. Malachi went flying backwards, hitting the ground hard. His pilfered steel breastplate sparked against the stone as he skidded, and then one of the spiderlings leapt out of the shadows and chomped down on his leg.

The steel cuisses absorbed the worst of it, but it still hurt. He used the pommel of his sword to bash the thing in the head, then when its grip loosened, kicked it with his free foot. He leapt to his feet, just in time to bring his blade up in an overhead parry and stop the rat-head from biting his face off. There was the nasty sound of teeth on steel, and then Malachi got in a good slash on the rat head, sending a spatter of blood across the room.

Then the snake head struck at him, a giant fang sparking off the breastplate. The bite was partially deflected, but a fang cut across his arm as the snake head recoiled, leaving a deep gouge over his bicep. Malachi hissed in pain, but was forced to backpedal by the mushroom head poofing out another cloud of poison spores. He sidestepped one of the chimera's legs as it tried to swipe at him, but then felt a spiderling latch onto his back.

He fell backward to crush the thing between his breastplate and the floor, then rolled to the side as the snake head struck towards him, getting a mouthful of spiderling poison rather than Malachi. He stood and wound up, smashing the blade into the side of the snake-head as it sputtered and spat, then retreated again as the spore head spat out spores. By now, Malachi had made a semi-circle around the room, weaving through the maze of web-curtains.

Suddenly, the snake-head snapped at the empty air, and the chimera turned, attacking—nothing, as far as Malachi could tell. Two of the spiderlings leapt at the chimera, biting down at its legs. While the snake head bit each of them off, the rat head kept snapping at the air. Is there something there? It almost looks like there's a glowing mist in the air. Is that Arisone's magic? Malachi couldn't keep watching. Another three spiderlings were charging him.

He ran forward to get better positioning, slashing through the one on his left. The second one to his right missed its leap, but the third one leapt up and its jaws clamped down on his shoulder. Most of the teeth hit steel, but a few sliced into areas not covered by the steel cuirass. Malachi swore, bashing the creature over and over with the pommel, only to get a facefull of poison gas as it died while the second spiderling chomped down on his shin.

Then, even though the rat mouth was still snapping at the air, the chimera charged forward through the darkness, ripping apart the webbing. It crashed into him, knocking him to the ground. The longsword went flying— again. The snake head chomped down on Malachi, trying to swallow him legs first. One of the fangs had dented the breastplate in the side, while the other had shattered on the center of it. The fangs hadn't pierced him, but the bite was crushing.

"Fuck. You!" Malachi said. There was nothing to do except punch the snake in the head, so that's what he did, over and over and over. The snake head lifted him up into the air, while the mushroom head squirted poison again. Conditions: Poison x6 (magical). Several bone fractures, lots of lacerations. Health: Very Bad -> Critical Malachi kept punching. He felt sharp pain in his knuckles, and was pretty sure he'd broken something there too, but he kept hammering at the snake's face, hitting it over and over and over.

He was yelling at it, mixing swear words into inarticulate shouting. He could feel the damn throat muscles of the thing contracting, trying to pull him in, but he dug his heels into something fleshy. The poison was doing something to him. At six stacks, it felt like his insides were burning. Health: Critical -> Very Critical He stopped punching and instead grabbed the snake's mouth, pushing up with all his might. His muscles strained and trembled.

He was able to back his feet up so he had his boots planted in the lower mouth, giving him more leverage to heave. The Warden's chimera made some sort of sound. The poison stacks were at eight, and the phrase 'very critical' was now flashing red, but he ignored it. Malachi roared as he pushed up with all his might. There was a CRACK! as the serpent's jaw snapped, and the mouth bent backward. Malachi fell to the ground in a heap. His hands felt like they were on fire. The pain was everywhere.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The chimera stood over him. The snake head was flopping around, but the rat head was looking right at him. Then, there was a burst of blue light, and the Warden toppled over, dead. He realized all the spiderlings were lying about dead, too. Trial Complete. A soft golden glow filled the room, though Malachi couldn't say where the light was coming from. Suddenly, Arisone was behind him, thrusting a vial at his mouth.

"Drink!" she hissed. Malachi drank it. By its taste, he immediately recognized it. Poison cured! Conditions: Bone fractures, lacerations, organ damage YES I KNOW THESE AREN'T 'TECHNICALLY' CONDITIONS, THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMENTARY, WARDEN He groaned. His regeneration was working again. His health was still at 'Very Critical' but had stopped flashing red. As he lay there, the webs around the room retracted into the ceiling. The corpses of spiderlings turned into sparks, which were then sucked into the floor.

The huge chimeric beast also turned into sparks, but these swirled around the center of the room as a small platform lifted from the floor. The sparks intensified their glow, and an ornate chest covered in silver filigree and decorated with malachite materialized atop the platform as the sparks flashed and faded.

"A silver chest," breathed Arisone.

"But it should be…" Whatever it was supposed to be, she didn't say. Instead, she clasped her hands in prayer. Her head was bowed, but her hair-snakes looked towards the ceiling.

"Blessed are the Guardians that watch over us. Blessed is Mareakal, who fathered the Wardens. Blessed is Unala, who birthed us all. We thank you for your gifts, but most of all, the gift of life." There was a flare of color as crimson and light blue magic swirled around Arisone, and then her hair settled back down.

"I am not sure how you are alive," she said.

"You are… a formidable warrior. Are all the soldiers of Earth like you?" Malachi thought of Juan. Of Nicole. Of William.

"Some," he said. He still couldn't believe they were gone. Had that really only been a few days ago? Can't think about that now, he told himself. Fortunately, he had a distraction. Grunting, he stood and headed for the chest.

"Going forward, you're going to tell me how this shit works before we do it. No more saying cryptic shit and then hiding in the shadows," he said.

"Very well," Arisone said. He could sense she had more to say, mostly because the snakes on her head seemed to be squirming about uncomfortably, but she was holding her tongue.

"And if you do that hypnotism shit to me again, we're done. Completely. You understand?" He was surprised to see that she looked… guilty? At least, her hair did. The hair-snakes wouldn't meet his eye. The gorgon nodded to him curtly.

"You have my apologies. It is considered polite to help along the courage of new sentinels, but I can see I acted inappropriately, and underestimated both your experience and valor. As you say, it will not happen again." Good enough, I guess, Malachi thought, and turned towards the center of the room. The chest had a faint glow to it. Arisone slithered up next to Malachi, and together they put their hands on it. There was a satisfying click as the lid opened, a luminous mist rising from the inside of the chest.

"Mareakal is kind," Arisone said. Inside the chest were three luminous motes, several glowing crystal shards, as well as a black sphere that was decorated with swirls of gold wire and glowing runes.

"A Class Artifact," the gorgon said.

"I already have a class, so it is yours." She swallowed and said, "And for saving me from an unenviable fate." That seemed hard for her to say for some reason.

"No problem. What's the rest of it?"

"Aetherite and essences. The former is used to create enchantments. The latter, to charge mana conduits, leveling them. There are also the essences of the… hmm. Is there a taboo in your culture of harvesting the essences of your dead?"

"Non-magical world, remember. So, no. Also, fuck those guys," Malachi said. The gorgon nodded slightly.

"These essences are for mesmeric, necromantic, and alchemy conduits. Useless to you, I assume, so I will take them for my people. The aetherite, we will split." She got out a small crystal vial and began doing some sort of magic. Slowly, motes of light in the chest began to turn into glowing tendrils that were sucked into the vial. Malachi let her do her thing and picked up the Class Artifact. Words began to appear in his vision. By defeating a Warden and its Dungeon, you are worthy of a Class!

I'm supposed to explain that, but you've played enough video games you get the idea. Here's your options, you can only pick one, the choice is permanent, but you can upgrade your class to higher tier versions later using a more powerful Artifact, yada yada. This Artifact came out of a silver chest because of the weird shit you and the gorgon just pulled, so you get some pretty sick choices: Fighter - Focus on enhancing Martial conduits, especially body.

This is a basic class, so even if you're a total fuckup you can choose it. I'm required to tell you about all your options, but if you pick this you're an absolute dunce. Brawler - Same deal. Martial conduits only, you got this for fighting extra-scrappy against those Maatugivi Empire chumps and the Warden. This is for the kind of people who went to college on a football scholarship for a division three school and got a Communications major but then decided to work at bars the rest of their lives.

They fantasize about punching people in their daily lives, of being the stars of the show again, but really, down deep, they know they've peaked, and a deep bitterness suffuses their—what do you mean character limit? Fuck th-- SERA, I have a headache like you wouldn't believe and everything hurts. Can you cut the edgelord bullshit? Fucking please? Ugh, fine. Here's the rest: Ranger - Good for a Martial (body) conduit and Druidic (animal) conduits. You only have one of those, so bad pick.

Archivist - I think you got this one for being a huge nerd. Zero combat applications. Great if you want to go work in a library! Elementalist - This would let you pick Elemental (lightning) conduit to focus on. But again, then you're not leveraging your other mana conduits. Can we skip all the ones that are bad choices? I'm not supposed to… well alright. Spellsword - Another one for Martial (body) magic and you could also pick either Elemental (lightning) or Conjuration (protection) as a secondary.

You got this for stabbing things with lightning and swords. You'd only get bonuses on two conduits, but the bonuses would be larger than something more general and the skills complement each other. Used a lot by delvers for its flexibility. Spellspear - Same two-conduit focus as above, but you got this based on how many things you've murdered with a spear. Which is a lot. You've murdered a lot of things with spears. Gives you bonuses with spears, and is focused on the offensive.

Also a good choice, just a different set of weapon skills and spells. Arcane Knight - This one has synergies with all three of your conduits. There's a nice mix of offensive and defensive abilities. I'd call it a 'tank' class in the Earth military tradition: both good at taking hits and delivering firepower while maintaining good mobility. Definitely a top pick. Lightning Berserker - Focuses on lightning and martial skills. Sacrifices protection for damage. You can go into a rage that alters your state of mind.

Really similar to taking meth! Wow, that drug has a lot of negative connotations in your culture. Buncha pansies. Ahem. Anyways, this is a good class for killing everything in the room. Quite good, if a bit dangerous for your allies. Armament Conjurer - Revolves around summoning ethereal weapons and armor. It lets you apply enchantments to those ethereal items, which is especially great if you're gear-starved, but mana-intensive.

You would want to pick up Conjuration (summoning) to go with this class, but your Elemental (lightning) conduit could enhance the summons with lightning bonuses. More of a Martial (soul) synergy. Still, a really good class. Malachi considered the choices. The problem was, he was trying to make a good build with too little information. Can you tell me more about the choices? Things they boost? Spell information? What sort of second-tier classes they lead to? How to change conduit types? No.

I've given you as much as I can. Anything I've marked as good, you can make work. There are bad 'builds' in this world, but they mostly result from stupid choices where a muscle-man chooses mage for some reason or someone takes a class that doesn't align with any of their mana conduits. Also, 'builds' are challenging when there's a random element to what abilities and spells you get offered. Though, what you do tends to influence what you get offered. Has to do with the conceptual nature of the ethereal.

What does that last part mean? You said that earlier. Nope, still an incredibly boring topic. No way. You can't make me. Malachi sighed. If this had been an MMO, there would have been no question. He'd always liked DPS classes. The thing was, those classes died. A lot. He was proud of how little he'd died in raids, but he'd still had characters with around a hundred deaths. Sometimes, there were circumstances where no amount of skill could keep you alive.

He swallowed, thinking of that terrible place he and his team had found themselves in. He grit his teeth and shoved the memory away. Arcane Knight, he thought. His body began to glow.