Chapter 97: Mountaineering
“...You can’t be serious,” Erani stared at me.
“We know the Dragon wants to get rid of the fort. We know it’s willing to attack. All we need to do is talk to it and ask for its help in taking them down. It should be happy to help.”
“Right, except for the fact that we’re Humans. And it’s a Dragon. I highly doubt it’ll have the humility to admit it needs our help. Besides, we don’t even know if it still wants to take the wall down.”
“It was attacking for hours. I’m sure it at least has some desire to kill them.”
“But it gave up. Maybe it decided this wasn’t worth its–”
Erani was cut off by a deafening roar from above. I looked up and saw the exact Dragon we were talking about bolting straight down at the still-in-construction wall in what seemed to be a surprise attack after re-gathering its strength.
The guards at the wall spotted the approaching Dragon and prepared for battle, rushing into the square rooms built into the wall and grabbing their weapons. Surprisingly, though, they didn’t seem too worried. I knew I’d be, if I saw that massive beast headed for me – even with the fortifications they had.
But it seemed like they knew something I didn’t, because nobody seemed to be panicking. Instead, the Humans calmly drew their bows while the Infernals manned their artillery weapons. They all stared up at the approaching monster, waiting for it to draw into their range.
It sped toward them, gaining more and more velocity as it flapped its wings and opened its mouth, preparing to bombard them in fire. And then, just as it got to them, it swooped by, blasting the entire massive stone wall with a blazing inferno, sure to destroy anyone and anything caught within.
But then the fire let up. And the wall stood. In fact, it didn’t even seem like it’d been touched by the fire. Instead, judging by the scorch marks covering the ground, it seemed like it’d hit the area around the wall, but stopped abruptly when it got within a dozen or so paces.
And I felt like I knew what’d stopped the fire. Though it was covered up during the brunt of the blaze, I could just barely see the purple shimmer of a magic shield disappearing as the Dragon flew away from its fly-by attack.
“They have a shield that can block that?” I wondered aloud, amazed at their ability to fend off the full-force breath of a Dragon.
But judging by the scorch marks that covered the wall from before, it seemed like, if the Dragon kept beating away at it, that shield may break. Though, I had no idea how long it’d take to break through. Or what it’d block from getting through, and what it’d permit to pass.
Or, maybe I did have a way of knowing.
“Hey, Index,” I said as we watched as the Dragon turned around to attack once again. “What kind of shield is protecting them from the Dragon?”
“Hm…” Index’s voice echoed in my ear as Erani turned to look at me. “An advanced one. Seems like it’s coming from some Enchanted item held within the wall. It’ll block a ton of damage, and is specialized to block magic attacks. Physical attacks, on the other hand, it’ll break much more quickly from. It also has some complex parameters on who or what it’ll let through. Tons of tiny rules and systems and algorithms determining that.”
“So it has a weakness to physical attacks? Why’s the Dragon attacking with fire, then?”
“No clue,” Index said. “It may just not know about the vulnerability. It’s not a ‘weakness’ in the sense that a single sword swipe could break it. More a weakness in the sense that, if the shield could block a million damage from magical sources, it can only block a hundred thousand from physical sources. Those aren’t real numbers, by the way. I can’t tell you how much it can actually block.”
“Alright,” I nodded. I was just seeing more and more evidence that we’d need the Dragon’s help to get past the wall. Or at least, we’d need to get its permission to pass through its territory in the mountains so we wouldn’t have to deal with the wall in the first place.
“This is what you wanted, right?” Erani asked me. “The Dragon’s attacking. Shouldn’t we run up and help?”
“No, not now,” I shook my head. “We need something coordinated. As-is, we’d just get mistaken for soldiers and get slaughtered with the rest of them if the Dragon takes the wall down. And they seem prepared enough that it probably won’t be able to, anyway. We need to talk to it and figure something out together.”
“You want to talk to a Dragon. Yeah, while we’re at it, why don’t we have a tea party with the gods?”
“It’s not as ridiculous as it sounds. It has something it wants done and isn’t capable of doing alone. All we have to do is convince it we can help accomplish that goal. If we can figure out what it’s capable of, tell it what we can do, and take some time to make a plan together, we could do together what we couldn’t do on our own. And all we need to do is help it break through that magic shield. After that, I’m sure the Dragon would be more than capable of destroying the wall itself while we head off. So when you think about it, there isn’t much danger posed to us.”
“Yeah, not much danger,” Erani rolled her eyes. “Except for the part where we talk to the Dragon without it getting bored and killing us. Or taking whatever we say as an insult. Or just killing us by accident because it stepped in the wrong place.”
“Look, what other option do we have? We definitely can’t get through on our own.”
“We do, though. We have those invisibility rings, right? You checked whether they worked or not, and they did. How many of them are still functional?”
“Six,” I said, frowning. Using the rings could work, but physically getting past the magical shield and the wall it was protecting would still be an issue. “Fifteen minutes each.”
“Perfect. That’s half an hour for all three of us,” Erani nodded. “We can sneak in now, while the soldiers are distracted by the Dragon, and get through by the time half an hour passes. They won’t even see us.”
I pursed my lips and thought. It definitely could work. If we found a way through that shield, it’d be totally possible for us to sneak past.
“Index,” I said, “is there anything specific you can tell me about how the shield decides what it lets through, and what it doesn’t?”
“Hmm,” Index said. “What I can say is that it allows the soldiers through automatically, and it isn’t because of anything you’d be able to take from them. There’s no bypass item they hold that you could steal and now you’d be able to pass through the barrier. Instead, it’s a– shoot. I can’t say that part. But yeah, there’s no physical object you’d be able to get that would let you through.”
“Huh,” I said, then turned and told Erani what Index just said.
“She can’t say any more than that?” Erani asked.
“Nope,” Index said. “But I can give you some general advice. You probably shouldn’t approach the wall straight-on, whether or not you have invisibility. It seems like you pretty strongly suspect there are Hellions patrolling the ground between you and the wall. If there are, they’d be able to detect you regardless of whether or not you are invisible. They can detect movement through vibrations in the ground, so they’d be able to feel your footsteps.”
“Shit, that’s right,” I said, and explained what Index said to Erani.
She gazed around at our surroundings. “There doesn’t seem to be any way for us to climb up into the nearby mountains here. The cliffs surrounding us are so sheer, I doubt I could climb them even without worrying about getting seen.”
“Yeah, that’s probably by design,” I glanced around us, searching for a way up into the mountains. If we could get up into them and off the road, we most likely wouldn’t have to worry about the Hellions. “They probably chose this exact point because they knew we wouldn’t be able to get by any way other than straight through that wall.”
“Hm. So I guess the invisibility rings are a bust, then.”
“Maybe not. We can talk to the Dragon and use it to bust through that shield, and then from there, we can use the invisibility rings to fight without worrying about risking our lives too much.”
“Sure, but those are the standard type of invisibility, right? Not true invisibility? So if we take any damage at all, the invisibility immediately wears off.”
“Yeah, but it's better than nothing. Hells, if things get bad, we can always go back on whatever deal we make with the Dragon, pop our invisibility, and run off.”
Erani pursed her lips. “Fine. But only because I know you have Time Loop in case it doesn’t work.”
“Why is Dragon attacking bad guys?” I got a sudden message from the Dryad, who was looking expectantly at me.
“Seems like it just doesn’t want them in its territory. Or maybe they did something to piss it off. Who knows.”
“Are we going to attack?”
“No, not yet. I want to try making a plan with the Dragon first. Maybe we can talk with it for a bit and figure something out. The way we are now, if we just randomly charged in and attacked, we’d just get ourselves killed.”
The Dryad looked over at the Dragon as it swooped around once more, raking its claws against the magical purple sphere surrounding the stone wall. The soldiers manning it took shots at the Dragon with their siege weapons, but it didn’t seem to do much more than irritate it. “What Level is Dragon?”
“What?”
“What Level is it?”
“Uh, I don’t know. One second.” I looked away from the Dryad and spoke aloud, “Hey, Index, do we know the Dragon’s Level?”
“Mm. It’s up there. Couldn’t tell you the exact number, but it’s high double digits. And, of course, it’s a Dragon. So even one at Level 20 would be super powerful.”
I relayed that information back to the Dryad. “Why do you ask?”
She just gazed up at the flying beast. “Dragon seems powerful.”
“Yeah, it sure does. I think we should be able to take down that wall with its help, as long as we can get a coordinated plan with it.”
She nodded and didn’t say anything else.
“Well,” Erani said, “we should probably head back so we can start climbing these mountains. We can’t get into them from here, but if we move backward far enough we should be able to. From there, we can climb up into the Dragon’s territory and talk to it. Don’t wanna stick around and get impaled by stray projectiles or something.”
“Yeah, that’d probably be a good idea.”
We started heading back the way we came. Since the valley was carved into the mountain range, the place we were before had no actual way to climb up into the mountains. Instead, we’d need to head a bit further back to a place that had a more gentle slope up into the wilderness.
Eventually we found a place where the rough rock edges made for some natural footholds and we could climb a few paces upward into the natural, bumpy terrain. I had Index looking out for us, helping me avoid any scouting parties we may have run into, and from wandering into contact with any more Lava Slugs. I’d had more than enough experience with them already, and didn’t really desire any more.
It took us about a half hour before we got into the wild mountain range, but even then, I could still look up and see the Dragon circling the sky around the wall. At least it provided a good landmark for us to know where to go. The mountain the Dragon resided in was near the wall, so we’d just need to climb up there. And once we reached its cave or got its attention somehow, we could start negotiating.
The only problem with that was the distance. That mountain was far away and far up, so we’d have to do quite a bit of climbing. And, quite honestly, I wasn’t sure if I or Erani could do that. The Dryad would probably be fine with her high physical Stats, but even with Recursive Growth’s bonus boosting my physique, it’d probably take me at least a week before we could get to the peak of the mountain. Not to mention Erani.
Luckily, I had the perfect solution. Expedite would more than double my own Dexterity, and more than triple Erani’s, so using that, we could easily scale obstacles that would previously take minutes or even hours of time and effort to get past. Cliff faces with tiny handholds, massive boulders impossible to climb over, chasms in the ground forming impasses we had to go around, all of them could be easily passed with my new Spell.
Expedite cost me 67 Mana, which was a bit more than a full minute’s worth, and it’d stay active for about 45 seconds. So, if I used a single stack of it on both Erani and myself, I could keep us boosted for a bit less than half of the time spent journeying. We could just turn it off when on even ground, and then use it when climbing up hills or cliffs to keep a quick pace.
And I definitely wanted to keep a quick pace. The Dragon would likely either destroy that wall or give up for good eventually. If it destroyed the wall, great, we didn’t have anything to worry about. But if it gave up or – gods forbid – died, we’d be fucked.
Plus, I wasn’t too confident in the idea that our enemies would just sit around forever waiting for us to show up. It seemed like the death of their scout scared them off for a bit, but even then, if we were gone and unaccounted for for days longer than they anticipated, they’d know we were up to something.
So it was with great eagerness that I decided to start helping Erani train with Expedite. As we were, she had no capability of functioning with a boosted Dexterity, same as I was when I first started using it.
We’d need to change that as soon as possible.
“Shit!” Erani fell to the ground, failing to even catch herself with her hands.
“I told you, don’t try to walk at first. Just move your arms and fingers for a bit and try to get used to the sensation.”
After the effect wore off, she got to her feet, brushing herself off. “I know, but you make it look so easy.”
“I make it look easy because I practiced for hours,” I laughed. “Here, I’m gonna re-cast it on you, and I just want you to stay still and try to poke my fingertip with yours. That should get you used to precise movements. Then we can move on to walking.”
“Fine,” she sighed. “Don’t cast it on me if you think you hear a monster around, though. I don’t wanna be caught crippled in the middle of a fight.”
We continued to practice like that for a bit. It took a while, but eventually she could walk with the effect active, and then run, and then climb, until she was fully capable of movement. From there, we finally started proceeding up into the mountains.
It was our first priority to just stray away from the path. It’d make no sense to traverse nearby, since that would only increase our risk of being seen by enemies. And then, we started heading toward the Dragon’s peak.
It didn’t take long for us to experience our first complication.
Erani and I were both climbing up a ledge, boosted by Expedite. The Dryad was way ahead of us, and had actually already gotten to the top of the short cliff and was looking down at us as we climbed, giving us advice like which handholds were unstable. We were only about ten paces from the ground, but even a fall of that much would be more than enough to hurt badly, so we both tried to stay careful.
But while I tried to focus on climbing, I was startled by a voice.
“Find a flat ledge to stand on,” Index said. “Enemy incoming.”
“Fuck,” I stumbled and tried to climb over to the best foothold nearby while I called out, “Erani! Find a place to stay. There’s an–”
I was interrupted by a sudden shriek, and looked up to see a figure soaring over us – a Drake.
I squinted the sun from my eyes, trying to identify its color. It was green. That meant it was an acid affinity. I hoped it’d just fly right past us, but it seemed like we’d unintentionally invaded its territory, and it was set on chasing us away.
Normally, we’d just flee and avoid a fight like this – Drakes were surprisingly forgiving as long as you left the moment it gave you its warning – but we couldn’t do that as we were. Erani and I were both suspended ten paces in the air, and the Dryad was all the way at the top of the ledge – none of us were in much shape to easily leave the way we came.
“Can you tell me its Level?” I asked Index. “How fucked are we if we fight it?”
“It’s on the lower end of Drake Levels, but not too low. Even at their minimum Levels of 15, Drakes get 15 Endurance per Level, plus a Talent that gives them extra Health per point of Endurance. It’d have at least 4000 Health. As a Green Drake, its claw attacks also deal increased damage, it has a spit attack, and if it’s above Level 35 it’ll–”
Index’s voice was drowned out by the Drake’s second warning shriek as it flew a bit closer to see what was going on. I just did my best to climb faster and get to a safe place on this gods-damned cliff.
But I couldn’t climb fast enough, and soon–
“Shit!” I retracted my hand as a glob of hissing goo spattered against the cliff face above me. I was lucky that the resulting splash didn’t get on me this time. Straining my neck, I glanced behind myself and looked back at the Drake, which was hocking up another ball of acidic saliva to throw at me.
Expedite has worn off of you.
Your Dexterity is 19.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I muttered and re-cast the Spell on myself, lowering my Mana to 959.
“Arlan!” Erani called. She was a couple paces to my side and a couple below me. “I need a refresh on Expedite! It just ran out.”
With an angry Drake behind me, and Erani, who wouldn’t be able to defend herself without my help below me, I turned around and readied myself. The Drake hissed.
I’d have to dig myself out of this situation, I just had no idea how I’d do it.
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