The trees grew taller and pressed closer together as I pushed Jaxen and the wheelbarrow toward the glowing objective deep within the forest. Branches interlocked overhead, filtering the light through thin slanted beams that caught specks of dust and drifting pollen.
Jaxen stopped reading in favor of clinging onto the wheelbarrow's edges. As I picked up speed, my mind drifted over chapter one's lesson on recognizing personal weaknesses. Recklessness, worldly ignorance, daylight, and monsters with positive karma formed my Mt. Rushmore of shortcomings.
"I've recognized my weaknesses, but I don't feel any different. Am I missing an epiphany or does that come later?"
“It means facing your weakness without shying away. Now, slow the fuck down!"
"I'll never get stronger if I don't push myself."
I shoved the wheelbarrow over an exposed root, and the front wheel's elastic sap-resin coating sent the whole rig bouncing upward. Horror seized Jaxen, draining his complexion as we gained air.
"Asshole, you're going to kill me!"
I seized the momentum, angling the wheelbarrow for a smooth landing. We bounced hard, bounding downhill through a sea of chest-high grass toward the glowing quest marker which had ticked down from miles to the specific reading of 3,950 feet.
I never explored this far southwest of Ingcaster before. Not that this forest looked different from the ones surrounding Waystone, or the greenery that stretched down to the Silverlight Plains. I wondered what Duskblade was doing out in the middle of nowhere.
One more bump down the hill broke Jaxen's patience. He swung his cane at the side of my head and I let go of the wheelbarrow's handles. Fear once again superseded his frustration, throwing the level 13 on the defensive. He hunkered down as the wheelbarrow's rear frame recoiled off the ground, sending it out of control.
"Son of a bitch!"
Jaxen Crowe’s screams echoed through the woods as he crashed into the brush. I reached the bottom of the hill and dabbed a single drop of sweat from my brow. We had covered almost 15 miles in under an hour with only one casualty.
I jogged into the brush expecting to find Jaxen's brains splattered on a tree or rock. Instead his cane whipped upward at my chin, knocking leaves loose. I caught the blunt end, and pushed it away.
For all his whining, Jaxen Crowe stood without a scratch. The wheelbarrow fared worse, its nose dented inward, and its wheel lost somewhere in a bush.
"Who the fuck are you?" he pointed his cane in my direction. "I don't know of many who can run two minutes like that. Certainly not while pushing someone in that piece of shit across such rough terrain."
He dropped into a crouch then burst forward like a coiled snake, the tip of his cane aimed at my throat. I sprang backward and he doubled forward, driving his left hand into my gut.
"You think you're the first who has tried luring me out of Ingcaster for a fight?"
"You've got it wrong."
I jumped back, recoiling from his blow and putting distance between us while he shook his hand out.
"I know an assassin when I see one."
"I'm just a noble adventurer chasing his dream of leading a group of my own to fame and glory," I lied, ready to blow an endless amount of smoke up his ass to end this before it truly started.
Getting bogged down in a scuffle while I was so close to my objective was the last thing I wanted. "I'm seeking your guidance so I can reach the same heights you achieved with the Crownless Raiders."
I clasped my hands together and bowed my head, opening myself up for another painful hit that never came. I looked up and caught Jaxen burying a grin beneath a scowl, like smiling was a capital offense.
"As you've seen, I'm strong, but my leadership is lacking,” I said.
"As is your training regime. You dragged us this far outside of the city and haven't broken much of a sweat nor has your heart rate budged."
Jaxen Crowe lowered his cane—a deceptively simple stick of iron-bound hardwood. My abs radiated with pain. I couldn't fathom taking a blow to the head from his stick.
I kept my hands out and open as I breezed past him, following an invisible straight line. If the quest module was correct, Duskblade was on the far side of the clearing, somewhere beyond the tall grass and twisted rows of trees at the bottom of a hill.
"Wrong way" he shouted after me.
"Uh, I sense danger over this way," I said before pivoting. "I mean, I smell mana fragments over yonder?"
"Yonder?" Jaxen limped after me, keeping pace with his book tucked underneath his arm. "Listen here, youngster, just because your pockets are full of gold doesn't mean you can whip me around wherever you please. "
Despite his vocal defiance, Jaxen Crowe followed me through the woods. I dropped my Filter, and Karma's Gaze pinged Duskblade through a slanted run of trees. Another familiar status appeared beside his.
Target: Skurt
Level: 4
Karma: +185
Additional Data: Age 26. Leader of the C-rank adventurer group Deadly Talon...
Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
I skipped the rest of his data in favor of scanning the rest of Deadly Talon, which consisted of three more young men in their early 20s. Each one looked greener than the other. A mage, an archer, and a rogue, all level three.
Duskblade led them on horseback straight in our direction. They wore proud smiles, hair matted with sweat, armor streaked with dirt and blood. But ignoring some faint cuts and bruises, they seemed perfectly fine.
Where's this supposed danger?
Quest Complete - Save Duskblade
+500 XP
Huh?
"Cyprus? Is that you?" Duskblade shouted as he spotted me through a gap in the trees, slack-jawed in disbelief.
They galloped faster, quickly descending upon us while my mind ran through dozens of questions that all started with why.
Why had the new quest module dragged me out here under false pretenses? Why was Duskblade in near perfect condition? And why was he grinning like he just discovered his long lost brother?
"What are you doing all the way out here? I heard you were participating in a joint raid with Valor and Glory and Pearl Banner out in Vaulter.”
"We cleared that dungeon days ago. I'm training now.”
"Training this far outside of the city? Seems fate has brought us together once again."
Nah, just a wonky quest module that I'm apparently bug-testing.
Duskblade dismounted, shook my hand, and squinted past me. "Is that Jaxen Crowe?"
"No," he said. "A number of folk have noted the resemblance. I understand the mistake, I'm also one of Aclana's most dashing men. I met him once. He's one of the realm's most honorable souls. Smart too, brilliant—even some would say."
"My oversight and apologies then." Duskblade bowed.
"Who is Jaxen Crowe?" Skurt wrinkled his nose and the rest of Deadly Talon shrugged.
"Bite your tongues before you reveal your ignorance and youth,” Duskblade hissed.
Skurt exhaled through his nose, unimpressed.
"Cyprus, let me introduce you to Deadly Talon, this is Skurt, Nolan—"
"You never said what you were doing out here." I interrupted his introductions, patience drawing thinner than a fishing line.
"Completing a goblin hunting contract. We tracked down the burrow and wiped them out. It's quite the story..."
While Duskblade rambled on, I scanned the background, hairs raised across the back of my neck. I wasn't sure what to make of the simple quest, but I refused to dismiss it as insignificant.
"After two days of coming up empty-handed, the nasty bastards attacked our camp at the crack of dawn. I was in the middle of cooking the group some porridge when—"
The forest rumbled hard, rejecting Duskblade's boring tale with a resounding boom. A flash of azure blue light washed over the forest, swelling from the clearing they had come from. Deadly Talon's horses booked it up the hill, ignoring their rider's objections.
"Watch out!" Duskblade shouted as dirt erupted, uprooting trees in an outward ripple originating from the azure light.
He hit the ground, taking cover beside a toppled oak. I rooted my feet and shielded my eyes as rows of ivory columns emerged from the forest floor.
"Cyprus, fall back!" Jaxen shouted from behind me, but I was captured by the mystic glow.
A stone mound rose from the earth, grinding into existence as if the forest itself were birthing a dungeon.
[Quest Alert]
Defeat the Dungeon Guardian - Eliminate the dungeon guardian and secure its key.
Rewards - 2000 XP, 500 Karma
Quest Priority Rating: Critical
[Accept Quest? Y/N]
I leapt away, keeping my concentration on the dungeon’s dome-shaped entrance as it claimed the clearing as its own space.
I accepted the quest, and granted Justice's new quest module a baseline level of respect. The misdirection from the first quest wasn't misdirection at all. To some degree, it knew the future. I bet the module couldn’t present me with this quest before the dungeon existed. That probably violated what Justice had referred to as the laws of "sacred knowledge."
Instead, the module had worked around its limitations, putting me in the right place at the right time, providing an incredible advantage. The last time I fought a dungeon guardian I was competing with Pearl Banner and Black Diamond, which ended badly.
I joined Jaxen behind a fallen tree 50 feet from the center of glowing light.
"We have to get out of here and alert the Gilded Boar.”
I ignored his hand on my shoulder as I peered over the tree, transfixed on the rounded dungeon entrance splitting the earth like an awakened titan. Once risen, an intense azure hue coalesced in its center forming a portal. A sonic boom announced the dungeon's grand opening, and three stone gargoyles appeared along with a towering 20 foot statue that resembled the colossus in Jag'thar's dungeon.
Target: Stoneskin Gargoyle
Level: 8
Karma: +215
Additional Data: Support mage variation.
Bonus Information: Paid in full by Eldrathos.
I blinked twice and cursed under my breath. The other two Stoneskin Gargoyle's shared the same positive karma and caster variation descriptors. Short horns curled out of the top of their heads. If not for the resource cost and disorientation, I'd loved to have used Ledger of Fate to see what good deeds these ugly sculptures pulled off.
Probably killed a party of dickheads.
Target: Flexicore Colossus 5000
Level: 9
Karma: -3750
Additional Data: Rental unit. Damage or destruction will result in additional fees.
The gargoyle's positive karma made my heart clench up until the colossus bearing negative karma brought me roaring back.
Duskblade played dead, wedging himself underneath the fallen tree. Jaxen army crawled in slow motion, preferring silence over speed. He motioned for me to follow, but I shook my head and mouthed, "I'm good."
The trio of stoneskin gargoyles flapped wings carved from solid stone, flying around the flattened clearing with a precise and terrifying speed. The colossus paced out from the dungeon’s entrance, patrolling toward us past the freshly risen columns.
Unlike the last colossus I faced, the Flexicore moved with unnerving grace. Stone joints and hinges glided smooth in a robotic stride. Its eyes were twin slits narrow as coin slots. The statue carried a bronze shield the size of a ceremonial gong and a giant iron club.
Jaxen froze, aborting his retreat as the ground trembled. I held my breath and tracked all four targets, remaining crouched.
"Do not move," Jaxen whispered.
Whether I moved or not had little bearing on the situation. In less than 10 seconds, the Flexicore would pancake Duskblade.
Does it sense his mana?
The Flexicore's ridged, stone feet split fallen trees in half, splintering them like twigs as it tracked toward us in a straight line. Accurately reading the writing on the wall, Jaxen resumed his crawl uphill, away from the impending disaster zone.
"Retreat, retreat, retreat," Jaxen whispered without looking back.
However, his ancient wisdom suggesting I face my weaknesses head-on trumped his current mantra. Though, I kind of wanted to let Duskblade get squashed. The thought of saving his life, and facing a lifetime of his gratitude was haunting. On the other hand, there couldn’t be a more opportune time to fire off a badass one-liner, bolstering my reputation and Anomaly’s by proxy.
Jaxen’s group was famous for slaying a dragon. Maybe the beginning of Anomaly’s legend would start with their fearless leader smashing some sentient rocks?
I stepped onto the fallen trunk, rose into view and cupped my hands around my mouth. “Is this it? Hand over the dungeon key before I turn the lot of you into gravel.”
