Steamforged sorcery a li.., p.7
Steamforged Sorcery: A LitRPG Adventure, page 7
“Where are they coming from?” Angel asked. “And any idea what it is?”
“Something large,” Cowl replied. He nodded in the direction they’d come from. “Somewhere over there, but I don’t know where it’ll emerge. It’s underground and approaching quickly.”
“Vanessa, back up a little,” Angel ordered. She hurried to comply.
A faint rumble started to shake the sand beneath Angel’s feet.
“Get ready,” Cowl warned. “It’s almost on us.”
The ground exploded and a massive gray blur launched skyward. The beast crashed to the earth, pelting them with sand. It had four spindly legs and a bulbous abdomen akin to a spider’s. Four black eyes the size of Angel’s fist focused on them. Saliva dripped from its yellowed fangs and splattered against the sand, melting through it. The beast opened its mouth and screeched.
Angel’s eyepiece dropped and magic tickled his skin, lighting the monster up with orange light as he scanned it.
Race: Warg
Status: Healthy
Level 51
Information accuracy: 53%
Strength: 62
Intelligence: 12
Nimbleness: 19
Toughness: 37
Rating: Incredibly Dangerous
Weak point(s): Not Enough Information (0/100)
Element(s): Earth, Poison
Error: Unable to analyze further. Information incomplete
It’s venomous!” Angel called out. “Tough too. Be careful.”
A bolt of lightning tore out of Angel’s palm and slammed into the Warg’s body. It staggered back, smoke rising from the impact point, and let out a chittering cry of fury. The monster’s eyes all focused on the Seeker and it charged at him.
Angel barely managed to throw himself out of the way as the monster’s legs slammed into the ground where he’d been standing, piercing deep into the sand.
Cowl’s wings burst up on his back and he shot through the sky toward the Warg. It spun, rearing back on its hind legs. Cowl jerked away at the last second and the creature’s strike passed through the air right before his nose.
He zipped forward again and drove his sword into the Warg’s back. The blade bit deep and greenish-brown blood oozed from the wound. The Warg screamed and lashed out, forcing Cowl to launch into the air to avoid getting speared.
Angel grabbed another canister from his arm and pressed it into the slot. He slammed his hand against the desert floor. The sand beneath the Warg rippled and a spike sprouted from it. The creature managed to pull away, but the strike carved a ragged line through its abdomen.
Cowl reached into a pouch at his side and pulled something out. He connected it to the hilt of his sword and a dull hum filled the air. Metal seemed to balloon around the blade, expanding outwards, growing larger and thicker. When it finished, the sword had nearly tripled in width. It shimmered with faint white light.
The Warg’s back legs bunched up. It bounded into the air toward Cowl, its legs raised to spear him before he could escape.
Cowl dropped from the sky, spinning as he fell and carving a thick line through the Warg’s side. It screeched again, landing on the sand behind them, tumbling across the ground before righting itself only a short distance away from Vanessa.
“Shit!” Angel cursed. The gears in his arm clicked and the grappling hook shot from his palm. It sailed through the air and slammed into Warg’s side, digging a short way into the creature’s flesh.
Angel tugged on it and twisted his arm as he dashed to the side. The cord retracted and he leaped into the air, swinging in a wide arc. The Warg tried to spin and face him, but the Seeker had too much momentum.
The cord continued to retract. He waited until he was nearly on top of the Warg before he redirected his momentum, swinging up onto the creature’s back and ripping the barb free.
It whistled back into his hand. He slammed a fresh canister into his arm midair. Landing on the Warg’s back, he thrust his palm against the monster’s upper right shoulder. The air crackled with the wave of magic that ripped out of his palm.
Tendrils of frost twirled out, slowly expanding across the monster’s entire body. It let out an enraged shriek. Cowl shot across the sky, aiming his sword for the wounded creature’s neck.
It twisted, throwing Angel off and batting the Hunter aside. Cowl spun, landing on his feet with a snarl. But the Warg didn’t go after either of them. It turned to Vanessa, saliva dripping from its maw.
Angel didn’t have time to think. Its chitinous legs bunched up as it prepared to lunge at the defenseless girl. The Seeker thrust his hand into his travel pack. Mercifully, his fingers almost immediately wrapped around the metal sphere he’d taken from the dungeon along with the wooden box.
He pulled it out and twisted the top. The lines and runes brightened with white light, and a seam appeared in the middle. Angel lobbed the sphere at the Warg.
The monster lunged at Vanessa. Cowl blurred forward, catching her arm and yanking her out of the way right before the attack landed. Angel’s sphere struck the Warg’s side immediately after.
It blinked out, going completely dim for an instant. Then, with an earsplitting crack, the air around the sphere vanished in a black orb. The Warg screamed as an explosion rocked the desert and its back was blown open.
Blood poured out of the creature as it crumpled to the ground, nearly split in two. Cowl was the first to move. He twisted a small circle off the handle and his blade shrank back to its normal size.
The Hunter put the circle back into his pouch and returned the sword to his side. He slid off the bulbous monster and landed on the sand with a grunt. Motes of blue energy spiraled from its corpse, splitting into two streams. One flew to Angel while the other went to Cowl. The energy tingled as it entered Angel’s chest.
The eyepiece lit with his updated status.
Race: Human
Name: Angel
Level: 27 [14%]
Status: Foreign Entity Detected
Information accuracy: 100%
Strength: 11 [+1]
Intelligence: 19
Nimbleness: 17 [+1]
Toughness: 5
Comparative Rating: Minor Threat
Weak point(s): Heart, Neck, Arteries… (100/100)
Element(s): Steel, [Unknown]
Magicore: None (39% Attunement)
“That was a big one,” Angel said, shuddering as the last traces of the chilly energy faded away. “Didn’t think I’d be fighting something twice my strength. Are you okay, Vanessa?”
“I’m fine,” Vanessa said, swallowing heavily as Cowl set her back down on the sand.
“Don’t put so much stock in levels, Angel,” Cowl scoffed. “Levels are a measure of how much magical energy something has, not its strength. They’re related, but not directly proportional. That Magitech you’ve got on your arm is hardly weak. The System just doesn’t account for it – nor did it account for whatever artifact you just blew the Warg up with.”
“That does make sense,” Angel said. His mechanical arm whirred and shifted to its blade form. He scanned the creature, then started digging into a spot a short distance behind the creature’s head. He made a face at the blood covering his arm, but his efforts were rewarded when he heard something clink.
His hand shifted back to normal and he wrapped his fingers around a small orb. He ripped it out, shaking the greyish-green blood off with disgust.
“That’s a lot of work for a little money,” Cowl said, watching the green orb in Angel’s hand.
“Cores have more uses than just money,” Angel said, tucking it into his pack. “I’ll take your disinterest as confirmation that I can have this.”
“Suit yourself,” Cowl said, shrugging. “It’s not worth the effort.”
Vanessa watched the Warg’s body warily. She edged around it, not taking her eyes off the creature.
“Are you sure it’s dead?” she asked.
“Does it look alive to you?” Cowl asked.
“It’s dead,” Angel said with a chuckle. He wiped his arm on the sand, scrubbing it until the blood was completely gone. “You okay?”
“Yeah. It didn’t get me,” Vanessa said.
“I know. But I’m taking it that this was the first time you’ve been close to a monster.”
Vanessa nodded.
“The next one will be easier. It helps to know how to fight against them, but you’ve got nothing to worry about,” Angel said. “Cowl’s whole job is hunting these creatures for money. He’s killed more monsters than you’ll see in your life.”
“You aren’t half bad yourself,” Cowl said with a slight nod of respect. “Most Seekers just run from monsters. It’s usually safer that way.”
“All the best loot is in the catacombs where you can’t get past the monsters without a fight,” Angel said. “Necessity breeds learning like a stale pool of warm water breeds Bloodflies.”
EIGHT
Angel examined his arm to make sure he’d cleaned all the gore from it. His clothes stuck to his skin from sweat. Without the wind to cool him, the sun was more of a menace than any monster could be.
“Shall we continue?” Angel asked, pulling the board from his back and tossing it onto the ground. “I want to arrive well before nightfall.”
“Yes. We should be pretty close now,” Cowl said, his wings sprouting.
Vanessa took one final glance at the monster’s corpse, activating her skates and nodding to them.
They sped off with Cowl at their head, leaving the Warg in the sand behind them. The remainder of the trip to Dune Valley was uneventful. With every passing hour, the dunes grew larger and the valleys deeper until they were practically mountains.
The sun was low in the sky by the time Angel got his first glimpse of Dune Valley. The city was perched precariously atop – predictably – a large dune. Massive metal supports sprawled across the entire sandy hill, holding the city aloft.
A curved disk of shimmering silver metal was held over the top of the entire city with trusses and bars. Thousands of slack wires hung from the disk, dotted with flickering lanterns. The impossibly tall buildings towered over the city’s short walls, casting a shadow long past the base of the dune that it was perched over.
The gates of the city were about fifty feet above the ground. A large steel plate sat on the ground before it, partially covered with sand. Iron chains, individual links the thickness of a man’s head, ran up from each corner into a huge pulley system above them.
Cowl’s wings retracted into his back as he led the other two onto the plate. The platform rumbled. The pulley started to turn, steam billowing from exhaust vents above the churning gears.
The platform rose one shuddering link at a time. It took several minutes for the metal plate to grind to a halt in front of a rather plain-looking gate. They walked off the platform and the pulley rattled as it began its trip back to the sand.
“No guard at the gate,” Angel observed, glancing around the entrance. “No annoying merchants either.”
“The gate is automated,” Cowl replied, leading them inside the city. “Nobody comes to Dune Valley for anything but business. It’s a wretched, ugly city with nothing of value.”
“Didn’t realize you knew the place,” Angel said. “What did it ever do to you?”
Cowl just grunted. The main road was barely as wide as some of the side streets in Bronze City. It wound and curled around tall buildings with just enough room for the three travelers to walk side by side.
Dune Valley wasn’t as dark as Angel had expected. There must have been thousands of lanterns scattered throughout the city streets, not counting the ones suspended above them. The air was chilly, likely due to the massive piece of metal blocking out the sun overhead.
“What’s with the metal roof?” Vanessa asked, craning her head to look at it.
“There’s a lot of blimp traffic in the area,” Cowl replied. “The city didn’t have a good spot for them to land since the dunes are always shifting. People were also asking for some cover from the sun, so the city combined the two. They made a giant landing pad that doubles as a roof.”
“That seems like a huge waste of money,” Angel said.
“You’ve got no idea how much money comes from blimp travel,” Cowl said, laughing. “The people that can afford to get on one can usually afford to spend several Vei a day on just about anything that catches their attention. If you can get them to stop in your city, you generate a ridiculous amount of money.”
“Is a Vei really that much money?” Vanessa asked doubtfully. “My skates cost fifteen Vei, but my mom gave me an allowance of five Vei every we—”
Angel clapped a hand over her mouth before she could finish the sentence.
“Shush,” Angel hissed. “You can’t go around yelling that. I’ve seen people killed for a few Vex.”
Vanessa’s eyes widened in shock and she nodded once. Angel took his hands off her mouth and shook his head.
“You keep dreaming that you have that much money and maybe you’ll get to see a Vei one day,” he said loudly, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. Cowl picked up the pace and they headed deeper into the city.
“Watch your words when we’re in the city,” Angel said in a low tone. “They’re no safer than the deserts. The monsters are just wearing human flesh.”
Vanessa shivered and nodded her understanding. Cowl came to a stop before a warped metal door. He pulled it open and dim orange light spilled into the narrow street.
The room had a single plain metal table with one chair in the center. A dirty mug sat on top of the table. There were no windows, and the only other exit was an empty doorframe at the back of the room. Angel peered through it to see several straw beds stuffed inside a room the size of a closet.
Cowl examined the room carefully. He pulled out a thin green tag from beneath one of the table’s feet and went to the door. He unlocked it and opened it, hanging the tag from the handle.
“This is a safe house for Hunters. Nobody will be stupid enough to bother us here tonight. We can get supplies and leave in the morning,” Cowl said. “There isn’t any food here, so we’ll have to make do with rations.”
Vanessa made a face. Angel pulled out his rations and she followed suit a moment later. Once again, Cowl ate meticulously and with deliberate movements, never removing his mask but instead lifting it just enough to fit scraps of jerky beneath it.
“Is there a reason you don’t take your mask off?” Vanessa asked bluntly.
“Yes,” Cowl replied. He stuck another morsel under the mask. Vanessa sent a side-eyed look at Angel, but the Seeker just shrugged.
“You’ll get used to it,” Angel said. “Hunters are strange sorts. They do what they want and tend to be eccentric. Fighting monsters for a living can do a lot to a person.”
“Like Seekers are that much better,” Cowl said with a low laugh. “You spend even more time in the Barren than we do. I’ve met many a good Seeker that went insane after getting trapped in a catacomb.”
“Good Seekers don’t get trapped,” Angel replied curtly. “There’s always a way out. If more people opened their minds to the true possibilities of magic, they’d realize that.”
Angel finished off his food, ignoring the befuddled look that Vanessa was giving him. He pulled three empty canisters from his bag and set about filling them.
“How do you do that?” Vanessa asked.
“Do what?” Angel asked. “Fill the canisters?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s a Tinkerer technique,” Angel said. “That’s what you’re going to school for, isn’t it?”
Vanessa nodded. “Yeah, it is. It’s the only thing my mom would let me do since it’s not dangerous like being a Seeker or a Hunter. I’ve read a little about it, but none of the books in Mom’s library went into any real detail and she refused to let me read anything related to magic beyond what we had.”
“Well, you’ll probably learn it soon enough in school,” Angel said with a small shrug. “It’s a pretty simple method. It’s just imprinting a pattern with magic and then putting it in a container to hold it. The canisters also act as a catalyst to activate the magic when they break.”
“Why do you need a catalyst?” Vanessa asked. “Can’t you just make the pattern and then cast it normally?”
“That’s Old World Magic,” Angel said. “Strong Old World Magic at that. Aside from Old World and New World, magic comes in two main forms: passive and active. Passive magic is something that’s always functioning without needing some form of activation.”
Angel raised his mechanical arm. “My arm is an example of that. It runs without conscious thought from me. Passive magic tends to be weaker than active magic. Active Old World Magic is a lost art. People used to be able to summon lightning from their hands and control the sea with their mind.”
He drew on the sand with his finger, leaving a faint trail of energy behind.
New World Magic
Passive: Uses canisters as batteries over a long period of time, such as skates.
Active: Uses canisters to cast a spell once, like my lightning.
Old World Magic
Passive: Runs on its own power without canisters over a long period of time.
Active: Casting spells without the usage of anything other than your magic.
“And that’s why it was eradicated in the Great War, right?” Vanessa asked, examining the words on the sand as they started to fade. “It was too dangerous.”
“You make it sound like we made a conscious decision to do it,” Angel said, laughing. “But it’s hardly eradicated – it’s just very rare. Passive Old World Magic is still around in the form of artifacts and relics, and some can even mimic the active version. New World Magic is just our attempts to copy them, but we’re missing something key – hence the need for canisters.”
“Well, according to the legends, the Great War started because Old World Magic was too oppressive,” Vanessa said. “The people that could use it abused it.”
