Chương 16

They were packed and ready before the five minutes were up. Fritz led the way, scouting the darkness ahead with his amber glowstone. The tunnels were labyrinthine, Fritz ran into abandoned goblin's nests, still active pit and alarm traps and the occasional group of goblins. The crew took a grim satisfaction in ambushing these isolated groups and slaughtering them. Jane especially took a dark pleasure in running the goblins through with her fish rib spear and watching them gurgle and die.

Minutes of skulking through the tunnels stretched into hours until, finally, Fritz spotted a sign they were getting close to the Stairway. A contrast of the orange and sickly yellow-green caught his eyes and he spotted the green stone marbled with blue hidden inside a crevice on the crumbling dirt wall. Excitement got the better of Fritz and he called out, "We're on the right path; look, it's the Spire's marble!" His voice echoed far too loudly, he now realised, through the passage.

The crew began to whisper hopefully, and Fritz shushed them and listened for the telltale giggling of goblins. Luck was on his side this time, no noise. He let out a held breath and continued onwards, searching for any sign of the green marble. After an hour or so of following one green patch of stone to another Fritz almost walked through the stairway by accident, hidden away in a small passage riddled with dark roots and softly falling dust.

The dirt gave way to green marble stairs filling Fritz with deep relief and unbridled cheer, he cried out, "Hark gallant climbers, the Stairway is upon us, your salvation is nigh!" There was a rustling then his whole crew was rushing past him, whooping in joy and running up the glorious green stairs. Fritz was last, just after Bert, they took the stairs two at a time and arrived in the Well Room.

The Stairway eventually opened up into a huge dirt chamber lit with yellow light radiating from an enormous dark tree trunk studded with thousands of amber stones, each swirling and pulsing with its own strange light. The trunk reached from the ground to the high dirt ceiling and stood in a muddy pond that reflected the amber's light in new undulating patterns.

Fritz and his crew were mesmerised for only a moment, then they ran to the pond's edge, cupped the stagnant water into their mouths and drank deeply of the Power. Fritz looked around and saw everyone descending into their Sanctums so he decided to follow along and dive down as well, excited to see what kind of Abilities he'd be offered. Trepidation filled him as the world spun and he fell into his eternally drizzling garden, to stand before his rain-soaked sapphire willow.

He saw muddied soil beneath his feet and the many rippling puddles around him. He placed his hand upon the willow's cool, slick bark and felt at his choices.

Passive Ability Choose One Quieted Steps Feet can slap, hooves must clop, boots will crunch, I do not. Decreases the amount of sound your steps produce to a minor degree. Alignment: Shadow, Sound. Cost: None. Duration: Passive. Refresh: None.

You have sprung an ambush while hidden. You attempted to be stealthy and were successful more often than not.

Trap Sense Pits and wire, falls and fire, discover danger, before it's dire. Increases your aptitude in finding traps or potentially dangerous natural obstacles to a minor degree. Alignment: Mind, Sense. C ost: None. Duration: Passive. Refresh: None.

You fell into a trap. You discovered and disarmed many traps. You discovered a Treasure Chest. Influenced by Technique 'The Observations'.

Vital Strikes The gap in joints, the chink in chain, find them, stab them, bring them pain. Strikes and spells that damage vulnerabilities or vulnerable points have their damage increased to a minor degree. Alignment: Death. Cost: None. Duration: Passive. Refresh: None.

You have killed a goblin by damaging its vulnerable points more often than not. Influenced by Spire. Influenced by Technique 'The Observations'.

Attributes Gained +3 Unaligned Fritz near salivated at the damage increase of Vital Strikes and was intrigued at the utility of Quieted Steps. Damage increases, Fritz knew, were rare and were almost always picked, Vital Strikes would be useful to anyone save maybe a healer, even then they might get an evolution that transformed the damage into healing, so it still might be picked. There wasn't much else to the Ability, a common trait of Passive Abilities as they were there to support your Path not define it.

Still, more damage was more damage.

Quieted Steps, however, would almost eliminate one of the ways to give oneself away while being sneaky, combined with a visual stealth ability could render you almost undetectable to monsters, or people, without high Perception. Even without such an Ability he had heard rumours of evolutions that could change what was quieted such as knives, bolts or arrows. A terrifying thought.

Fritz sighed, he knew which one he had to pick, while more damage and better stealth were great choices for him, Trap Sense was there among the choices smugly taunting him. Any other time he would have been ecstatic that Trap Sense was a choice. I t was one of the sense Abilities Guides valued highly and thus it was one that was on Fritz's instant pick list. But Vital Strikes, he whined inwardly. Trap S ense seemed the most boring of the Abilities but he knew it was by far the best for himself and his Path.

It's better to be alive, than to do more damage to weak points he reasoned. Traps were one of the greatest dangers in the Spires, both from the constant toll on the attention of the climbers and the occasional injury or even in the worst cases death. He steadied himself inwardly as the memory of falling into that first pit rushed through him. He was resolved in that instant and chose.

Again his Sanctum spun, his willow changed subtly though he knew not how, he only knew more keenly where the deepest puddles lay, and how stepping, falling, into one had the potential to drown. Now for the Attribute points, it seemed that most of his mistakes had been due to not seeing or not sensing something in time so he put all three of his unaligned attributes into Perception.

'Spire Readout' he thought at his Sanctum. The glyphs lit up as usual and he read their glowing silver lines.

Spire Readout Name: Francis Hightide Level: 2 Path: --- Strain: Human Attributes Strength: 0 Agility: 3 Endurance: 3 Perception: 12 Focus: 3 Memory: 3 Advanced Attributes Activated 1/3 Stone Pit Gouge the stone, shift the ground, instant craters, holes abound. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Passive 1/3 Trap Sense Pits and wire, falls and fire, discover danger, before it's dire.

Trait 0/3 Path 0/3 Technique 2/3 The Observations (Novice) Whittle away, scatter survive, poor prevail, covertly thrive.

Arte Pugilist (Novice) Strike, Slip, Punch, Kick, Dive, Skip, Grab, Flip.

Strain 0/3 He looked through his spire sheet realising he forgot all about attaining his second Technique during the goblin's ambush. He quickly focused on its strange entry, well not much stranger than the rest of the Abilities descriptions he conceded. Still, he reached out and found its description.

Technique Arte Pugilist (Novice) Strike, Slip, Punch, Kick, Dive, Skip, Grab, Flip. Gives minor benefits to Strength and Agility of unarmed strikes, dodges and grapples. Abilities used by unarmed attacks are reduced in cost. These benefits increase when you are within the reach of your opponent. These benefits increase when unarmed or unarmoured. These benefits significantly increase when unarmed and unarmoured. Abilities gained and Evolved are more likely to be influenced with these effects.

You read, practised and understood the Techniques in The Brotherhood Escantor's: Arte Pugilist, Prowess Martial, Treatise Tactical.

Definitely a mad-man's fighting style, bonuses when up close and when wearing nothing to protect you? It's like the Brotherhood Escantor were trying to get you killed. He was a little annoyed he had to learn the Technique and had spent so much time doing so as he wouldn't be going without a weapon or armour if he could help it. But it did save his life, he recognised that and that Sid had been right about learning both the techniques, he just hoped it wouldn't influence his Abilities too much.

Well enough dawdling, he took one last quick look around his rainy Sanctum, pat his willow one last time then willed himself out. When he came to and the world stopped spinning, he nudged Bert who smiled at him sheepishly as he turned to face him.

"I uh I picked almost immediately," Bert confessed.

"Oh, so did I," Fritz slapped his forehead, "I got too excited and forgot to consult you all, here I go again being an idiot," he admonished himself. The rest of the crew looked equally as sheepish and furtive as Bert as they avoided each other's gazes. Fritz came to a sudden conclusion based on their behaviour and asked "Did everyone just go ahead and pick their passive without bothering to check with the crew?"

No one spoke up but everyone looked guilty to Fritz's enhanced senses, he sighed and spoke again, "Let me rephrase that, who here still has a selection to make?" No one answered.

"Since we all made this same mistake how about we let bygones be bygones and forgive ourselves, just this once," Fritz suggested cheerfully. The comment was accepted wholeheartedly and people began to breathe easy.

"Let's go around the group and explain what we selected, starting with..." Bert made a sham of selecting someone at random and just pointed straight at Fritz's chest, "Fritz." The crew smiled and laughed with a few giggles thrown in, the stress was melting away from them by the second after leaving the abyss that was the goblin mine floor. Fritz smiled and boldly proclaimed his new passive Ability, "Behold, Ladies, Gentleman and those in between or outside. I have selected the mighty Trap Sense Ability.

It gives me the heroic capacity to, you guessed it, sense traps. I also aligned my three Attribute points into Perception, you may now applaud, weep and worship me as your new King." There actually was a spattering of applause, a low whistle from Sid, and Bert punched the air in solidarity.

"Nice one," Sid commented.

"That'll make Trap Rooms a damn breeze." He then scowled a little remembering the goblins, "As long as there's not monsters."

"What did you choose Sid?" Bert encouraged him to continue.

"I got an Ability called Fleet, makes me quicker on my feet, and I put my points into Agility," Sid explained then looked to the next person in the crew, Toby. He smirked darkly, "Exsanguinator, increases bleeding caused by cuts I inflict, it will work well with Lacerate, I also put my points into Agility."

"Very nice," Fritz said earnestly, and a tad enviously.

"I took Tough skin," Bert chimed in holding up his arm and showing off his bruised, battered and sliced-up fist.

"It will hopefully stop my skin from breaking on the enemy when I punch them."

"You could just not punch them," Veronica observed, getting an aghast stare from both Bert and Lynn.

"Or keep being crazy," She conceded wrapping an arm around Lynn's waist and laying her head on Lynn's shoulder.

"I took Smooth Skin by the way, seems to make you harder to strike cleanly, among other benefits. I put my points into Endurance." Lynn rubbed her hand over Veronica's hand on her waist and nodded appreciatively "Very smooth, but it's always been like silk. I took Tough Skin just like Bert, similar reasons," She added gesturing to a scabbed over cut on her leg. Fritz gave a sympathetic smile then gave Jane a questioning eyebrow raise, turning the crew's attention to her.

"Fire Resistance, Endurance," she said icily through tightly pursed lips. Fritz winced, while the crew glared daggers at him for daring to make Jane say something so obviously painful. Like he knew what she'd chosen. Bert shook his head slowly, hiding a small smile on his face.

"Guess Trap Sense doesn't work on social traps, you stepped right into that one," he whispered to Fritz.

"What about you Greg? Get something good?" Bert changed the subject, obviously taking pity on Fritz for his thoughtlessness.

"Got something called Bulky, makes me stronger, then I put all my points into strength," Greg shrugged grinning smugly. He did look bulkier, if only slightly, he would probably be built like a brick outhouse in a month, or maybe even a week, with his current pace of growth.

"Ah, Greg and his strength, you'll be a veritable bull when we get out of here, and not in just the physical ways," Fritz attempted to compliment. Greg harrumphed then chose to stay silent, not rising to the bait.

"And last but not least," Fritz continued, not letting silence smother the conversation again.

"Naomi, what mystic art did you unlock?" She looked embarrassed about being put on the spot, maybe she was shy?

"I chose Herb Sense, it will help me find plants with magical or medical properties," She said in a mostly steady voice.

"Poisons too?" Asked Toby eagerly as his hand absently wandered to one of the last of his blight-hound fangs.

"Poisons too," Naomi agreed giving a reserved nod.

"Oh, and I aligned more Agility."

"Well, that's everyone, good choices guys. I'm glad we all stayed true to our goals and strengths. Now for some rest," Fritz said adjourning the 'crew council'. The crew split into their respective cliques. Naomi, Veronica, Lynn and Sid found a spot by the dirt wall away from the mesmerising pond. While Toby and Jane found an alcove to do some canoodling, or at least that's what the others suspected as they gave the pair some much-deserved privacy.

Bert, Greg and Fritz strolled to investigate the Doors that Fritz would be choosing from. Fritz felt a dull shivering, or was it tingling, in the back of his mind. He couldn't quite place the feeling but he just knew he was missing something about the room. He scanned the dirt walls, ceiling and gleaming, glowing tree. His mind's eye kept being drawn to the pond, but he saw nothing wrong with it save the reflected, swirling, hypnotic light.

He put the feeling out of his mind and pulled his attention to the Doors cut into the crumbling dirt. As he approached the Doors he took a detour, deciding to make for Greg instead. Greg grunted in way of greeting when Fritz stood before him. Fritz replied with an amiable nod, patted down his clothing and checked his pockets. As the quiet stretched on Fritz coughed, clearing his throat then spoke, "Thanks for coming back for me."

Greg merely grunted, so Fritz continued, "Back in the ambush, you saved me, I just wanted to thank you. I know we don't get along, but I won't forget that." Greg grunted and getting nothing more from the man's face and demeanour he turned to leave when Greg rumbled, "We don't get along cause I don't like you Fritz, it took me saving your life for you to come talk to me without wanting something from me. You're a selfish prick, Bert's little leech and I don't see that changing, so piss off would you."

Fritz was startled and was about to protest, but Greg just glared him down, spat to the side, then walked away, ending the ir talk absolutely. He stood there dumbfounded, fists clenching hard enough to hurt. Was that true, had he really never talked to Greg without an agenda? He baulked at the idea, Fritz searched his memories for any moment that he had a friendly talk with Greg when he didn't have to and came up empty. How many of his friendships were coloured like this? He wondered.

That hollowness in his centre started to pull on him, begging for its nothingness to be seen, to have its emptiness heard. He pushed away the dark, furious thoughts, now was not the time for vicious introspection. Now was time to look at some Door s. Yeah, that'd get his mind off stupid, dumb Greg, he wouldn't even know a friend if they hit him on his thick, ogre skull. Which is what I should do, later. Fritz stomped towards the Doors, stopping before them in a huff then looking them over with his precise senses.

He ignored the Door behind, the one they had entered from, and could now serve as an escape. He didn't want to draw attention to it, it might make the others reconsider striving for a Path. One of the Doors up was a dark grey natural stone circle, it had a pocked, wavy ramp of that same dark stone, a scent of iron stagnated by its entrance. The scent of iron is worrying as it could be blood, but there's not much to go on here. The next Door was of intricately carved blue ice, sculpted into an elegant arch.

As Fritz looked closer he could see fine white lines climbing like vines, blossoming like flowers worked into its gleaming cold surface. The breeze from this Door burrowed in to the bone with gnawing cold, causing Fritz to shiver and step away immediately. Too cold, no way we can survive that freezing wind, not as we are now. The last Door was familiar, being almost identical to the ancient stone-bricked Door on the first floor's Well Room.

It gave Fritz a deeply ominous feeling, sweat beaded on his brow and he almost retched from the smell of rot, more intense than the last time. Or maybe it's just my better perception, either way, this Door gives me the creeps and undead are still to be avoided. He stepped away from the Doors and was annoyed again by that dull tingling in the back of his head. What is it? He searched again, his eyes being drawn to the pond. Was the pond's shore always so close? The room is filling up!

The thought hit Fritz like a hammer blow.

"The Well Room has a time limit!" He yelled out, he turned and ran to Bert and Greg, who was staring at him like he had just gone crazy, or crazier really.

"Bert, Greg gather everyone, the room is filling with water, we have to get out now!" They started to run at his command and soon the crew had gathered up, only Jane and Toby being in much disarray. The other s shared knowing, teasing smiles but thankfully said nothing.

"The pond is expanding, at this rate we have around ten minutes to get ready and get out," Fritz explained clearly now that the crew was together. He heard a splash and a wave of muddy water splashed against his ankle, "Make that five minutes," He amended hastily.

"This Door," Fritz pointed at the dark stone circle "Ice Door is too cold and the other probably has undead, this one looks odd but has no telltale signs of danger save the smell of iron. Which is most likely only old blood." They looked at each other determination forging their resolve from their bonds formed in and out of battle. They teamed up quickly into their formations and passed into the stone circle. Upwards, ever upwards.