The System refuses under any circumstances to elucidate your progress towards the next reward. Theories as to why this is abound. Perhaps it is an attempt to prevent optimization of strategies for Leveling. Perhaps it hides inconsistencies or irregularities within the System, or perhaps it is something else entirely.
- Rufus Veres, Level 37 Verbose Historian, A Brief History of the System
Gripping the rope tightly with both hands, I carefully turned around so I was hanging off the side of the cliff with my feet on the rock. Slowly, but with less jerking than I expected, Zaire lowered me down gradually, until I came to a sudden halt, perhaps eight or ten feet above the surface of the water below me.
My heart rate started to increase as I hung, dangling from the rope over the deep, deadly lake. I felt the rope shiver as Zaire fumbled with the knot.
Nervously, I searched for handholds on the sheer rock wall. I was only able to grab on with the tips of my fingers, putting most of my weight on my right foot which was resting on a very narrow ledge. I strained to support as much of my weight as possible and I felt the rope slacken just a bit.
Abruptly the rope went completely slack, and, startled, I lost my finger-tip hold on the wall and fell backwards. I definitely did not scream as I plunged down, jerked to a near stop by the rope wound around my thighs, and then free fell the rest of the way.
Splash! SPLASH!
I hit the water on my back, my eyes wide open in fright. Above me, I saw Zaire pulled over the edge of the cliff as he tried in vain to hold onto the rope, losing his balance and plummeting down. The force of the impact with the icy water hammered my barrier, and then I was plunging down, the water seeming to pull me in. Panicking, I thrashed, fighting to get back to the surface.
I was completely disoriented in moments, and when I opened my mouth to scream the cold water came pouring in, some of it reaching my lungs and I felt like I was choking on it. Desperately, I opened my eyes, finding the light above me. I started trying to pull myself through the water with my hands. As I kicked my feet with all my strength, my water-filled boots felt like they were dragging me back down. Finally, my head broke the surface and I immediately started coughing up the water I’d swallowed, still frantically trying to keep from slipping under.
I heard Zaire scream over the Comms, and then I was suddenly pulled back under by a powerful tug on the rope that I was still tied to. I barely managed to close my mouth in time as I started thrashing the water again, desperately trying to pull myself back to the surface. The rope pulled taut, and I opened my eyes, seeing Zaire perhaps twenty feet away, and much deeper underwater, clinging to it.
To my left, the rock wall was taunting me, just out of reach. I tried to force myself towards it, but since I had no idea what I was doing and Zaire was still pulling on the rope I was barely able to stay where I was. Fuck, it’s just out of reach! Wait!
I tried to point, hoping he caught my meaning. A moment later, one of the thick columns of sharp rock exploded outward from the wall, then another a few feet above it. I caught the lower one with desperate strength and pulled, hauling myself closer until I could get both hands on it. From there, with Zaire’s weight still dragging on the rope, I managed to heave myself up to grab the upper spike.
My head broke the surface of the water and I gasped for breath.
I clamped my left arm around the upper spike and started hauling the rope in with my right, wishing I had more points in Strength. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I felt Zaire’s hands clamp onto my wrist and I dragged him up out of the water next to me, holding onto him as he started gasping for air.
We stayed there, clinging to the slick spike of rock, hearts pounding and chests heaving, for several minutes before finally pulling ourselves together.
“What… - cough - happened?” I finally got out.
“The knot, it came undone when I tried to free it from the spike. I grabbed the rope, but it pulled me over the edge before I could stop your fall… I… I am sorry, Gunner Az, I nearly got us both killed.”
Zaire’s expressions were always hard to read but I was sure the grimace on his face was as much from embarrassment as the aching chill of the water around us. I looked him in the eye, his strange golden orbs glinting.
“It’s OK Zaire, I mean Mage Zaire. We made it, that’s the only thing that matters. And you saved us both with these spikes! I can’t believe you were able to focus enough to cast while almost drowning! That was incredible!”
“We are lucky my staff was already in my Inventory, if I had lost it in the fall I would have been unable to cast.”
I gripped his shoulder gently. “We made it, now we just have to touch the portal and we’re out of here and safe. Go,” I nudged him, “I’m the leader, I should be the last one out.”
Reluctantly, he pulled himself along the spike to the cliff, then started making his way over to the submerged portal. With a death grip on the small handholds of rock, I slowly followed him. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and pushed himself down. A moment later, he was gone. Looking down, I could see the strange void in the water below me.
You can do this, Az! If that shit Elin can do it, so can you! Inhaling deeply, I relaxed my arms, sinking further into the water until it reached my chest. Then, convulsively, I pushed, and drove myself down into the icy water. Just before I lost it and started panicking, I felt my feet hit something and a message appeared.
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Dungeon portal activated
Exit: Level 2 dungeon?
YESSS!!
An imperceptible instant later, I was falling through air instead of water, landing on hard dirt with a thump. Blinking dazedly, I had a moment to wonder why it was so dark before chaos erupted around me.
Quest Update: Complete the dungeon…
“She’s out! Go go GO!”
An unfamiliar woman’s voice cried out, and then I blinked away a notification as I was pulled roughly away from the portal. A group of armored men and women swarmed it, placing their hands on it. I tried to sit up, but the strong hands that had grabbed my shoulders pushed me back down.
“Hang on, your Healer will be here in a moment. Are you injured?”
I craned my neck to look back and see the woman leaning over me. She had her helmet off, but in the moonlight - was it really still night outside? it had felt like an eternity in the dungeon - I could make out that her breastplate was clearly covered in an Army-style camouflage pattern. Much more interesting, however, were the numerous glowing purple lines running across her face, like a spiderweb pattern of thin, radiant purple scars. Identify.
Name: Captain Emelia Rivers
Class: Axemaster
Tier: 3
Before I could gather my thoughts to reply to the captain, the people around the portal flickered and vanished. I heard the stomping of heavy boots and saw Vale’s broad, bright-armored form come into view. As she knelt down next to me, my mind flashed back to the dwarves we’d fought and killed in the dungeon. Did her family really come out of a dungeon somehow?
A flicker of light came from her hands and flowed into me. I felt it move around my body, soothing my wounds, until it surged up past my neck and I cried out, gasping in agony at a sudden, searing pain in my right eye. My hands jumped to my face, instinctively trying to protect myself from nothing.
“FUCK!” I screamed, though the pain had come and gone by the time I’d finished the curse.
“Az, let me see!” Vale commanded, grabbing my wrists and easily pulling my hands away from my face. My eyes were screwed shut, and she had to tell me twice before I finally let them open. I was treated to a close-up look at her face, eyes narrowed in concentration, as she examined me for a moment before pulling back with a sigh.
“Ah, you had t’ use a mana potion, didn’t you?”
I blinked in confusion before nodding slowly.
“What was that? What happened to me?”
“Mana corruption,” Mason’s voice answered, and I found him towering over me, body leeched of color in the moonlight. He bent down and offered me a hand, easily pulling me to my feet. He looked closely at my face, then nodded.
“Surprising at your Level, but it doesn’t look serious. Was your eye injured in the dungeon?”
I remembered the trapped chest and nodded. “It was, but it didn’t seem too bad…”
“Hah, you almost died from that trap!” Raylan appeared, grabbing me around the shoulders in an enthusiastic half-hug, and began animatedly telling the story.
“Later!” I elbowed him in the ribs, or at least in the cuirass, and he relented. “What happened to my eye? Was it because of the mana potion?” I explained what had happened when I drank it, how my mana had surged up past my normal max before dropping back down, and the pain I’d felt throughout my body but especially in my eye.
Mason and Vale exchanged glances while the Army captain looked on silently. Vale sighed, then spoke up.
“‘Twas my fault, giving you diluted and uncalibrated potions like that…” she looked down regretfully.
“No, that potion probably saved my life, maybe all of our lives! But what does un-calib-rated mean?” I sounded out the unfamiliar word.
“Everyone has a different sensitivity to mana potions… You’re meant to get them from an Alchemist who can measure your sensitivity first, then adjust - calibrate - the strength of the potion for you. You’re most definitely not supposed to be drinking watered-down higher-Tier potions of unknown strength.”
Mason’s voice was grim and he was staring at Vale, who shuffled her feet nervously like a kid in school receiving a scolding. Well, some kids looked like that anyway. I think I just got angry…
“Zaire used his too, but he seemed to be OK. Wait, is he OK?” I looked around urgently, before locating Zaire sitting on a rock not too far away, with Elin slouching next to him. He saw me looking and waved cheerfully.
“He’s fine,” Mason assured me. “Likely his sensitivity is lower than yours, so more of the mana from the potion would have escaped from his body harmlessly into the environment. In your case, your body absorbed too much mana from the potion, which exceeded your body’s natural tolerance. When that happens, the excess mana can… change… parts of your body, especially if you’re injured.”
Vale took up the explanation next. “When I healed you, t’ Spell reacted with the corruption, causing the pain. It’s normal, don’t worry. Are you seeing OK with it?
She had me look around with a hand over one eye, then the other. I found to my surprise that, if anything, the vision in my right eye seemed a little sharper, the shadows a little less dark, than my other eye. Vale nodded, taking it in stride.
“Corruption ‘tis as likely to be beneficial as harmful. Seems ‘t you got lucky this time. Nice color, too.”
My mind stumbled to a halt. Nice color?! What does…
“What do you mean?” I asked grimly. “What color?”
She held her palm out, and after a few seconds a small mirror appeared in it. As I took it, she lifted her hand higher and a ball of warm light appeared in it, several times brighter than the usual Cantrip. I tilted my mirror, taking in the sight of my face. I looked, well, I looked like someone who had been battered around a dungeon, almost drowned, and was still soaking wet. I shivered, the cool night air suddenly bitingly cold on my wet, ragged hair.
I finally got the right angle, bringing the mirror close to my face to examine my eye. The familiar faint, thin scar, years old, ran down from just above my eyebrow to my cheekbone. Most of my eye looked normal as well, the majority of my iris still its usual dark brown. However, a thin ring around the outside had turned a bright blue, almost glowing in the reflected light. I stared in wonder, blinking at the strange vision in front of me.
When I lowered the mirror, Mason gave me one of his toothy grins.
“Did you know that there’s another name for that bright blue color you’ve got there? It’s called azure. Quite fitting, I think. Azure. Good name for a Delver.”
I gaped at him, trying to process what he’d just said. As my brain whirled, I saw a streak of light flash across my eyes, perhaps fifty yards away, before a flash of white light erupted from somewhere just beyond a small hill. Block’s shout carried quite clearly in the sudden stillness that followed.
“KITTEN! That one was mine!”
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