timewalk

  Aliandra Ali stood ohreshold of her domain, staring out at the wastend of bone ah that filled the remainder of the cavern. What had once been an ominous dark roiling expanse of hostile dungeon mana was now… empty. Somehow, her impulsive a of destrug the enormous bone spire in the ter of the library had triggered a rea of unraveling that went well beyond what she could have ever imagined.

  There were still remnants, wisps, and smoky tendrils of bone mana wafting through the cavern, and small isoted pockets of death affinity emitted by the ever-present Bed Deathcap mushrooms, but the malevolent structure that identified it as the domain of a dungeon had entirely vanished. Dismantled by her as yesterday.

  Even the residential level of the ruins of Dal’mohra had been liberated from the dark and depressing clutches of the dungeon – she had seen no signs of any remaining mana weave or structure the entire walk back. In fact, the only signs that the dungeon still lived were the remnants of the domain that seeped through the closed library doors on the sed level.

  her she nor her friends had seen any signs of Kobolds either, which was beginning to worry Ali.

  Where did they go? Is this my fault?

  She sidered the drum for a few moments while her minions shifted restlessly in the dark beside her. But no clear answers materialized, no fsh of inspiration in the dark.

  Well, she thought, gazing at the expanse of the newly liberated cavern. I guess that means I don’t o worry about triggering a dungee. With fifty tribute points from all the levels she had gained yesterday, Ali had felt fortable spending a signifit portion of them on increasing her wisdom. Her iment had grown her maximum mana substantially, but now her domain tribution had once again fallen below the maximum threshold, meaning she would o expand if she wao gain the full bes of her Domain aptitude.

  She turned around and surveyed the expanse of the cavern she had already cimed, smiling happily at the sight of thousands of tiny pinpricks of golden light rising from her mushrooms, and the jagged flickers and fshes of green that looked like hyperactive fireflies from the growing popution of nature wisps that had settled in to live among the branches of her trees. They seemed to particurly favor the oaks.

  She had woken a few weeks ago, adrift, filled with grief, brutally disected from everything she had known and loved by the horrifying ambition of the Blind Lich. She had almost died right there, alone in the darkness, food for a wandering Sewer Rat. Now, however, she had a domain that spanned half a cavern, she had id cim to aire town’s sewer system, aerday she ahree friends had defeated an undead Skeletal Wyvern in the heart of a dungeon and recimed the ruins of the Grand Library Ara – and, if she was reading the mana right, her destru of the spire meant the dungeon wouldn’t be respawning that monster any time soon.

  If I want to keep it, I o cim it. There was a long way to go, but she had everything she o grow her domain all the way to the library. She could pnt trees here, ivy down the ventition shaft, and mushrooms and moss through the streets of the ruined city. The only thing she needed was the time to do it. I guess I also gh the entrance hall, she thought. It was the longer route, but it would work too. Both, she decided. At least eventually.

  She was beiimental. g the library had nothing to do with possessing a ruined building – nothing in it was worth saving. She had done more than enough psychology studies to guess that it robably a straightforward rea to the trauma of losing everything. That her unscious will was reag to reect with anything that remained from her past life, and that the library represehe idea of stability, familiarity, and safety for her. But it still felt right. Her inner voice of practicality told her she o grow her domain to increase her mana anyway, so it might as well be on the way to the library.

  She turned back to face the boundary between her domain and the former territory of the Ruins of Dal’mohra dungeon and produced her Grimoire. She ope to the tree imprint, spilling the bright light of her magic out into the darkness before her. She decided on trees first, to cim as much space as quickly as she could before backfilling it with the moss and are Glo mushrooms that would augment her nature and are mana. With her dire clear, she summoned her mana and begaing trees.

  Grimoire of Summoning has reached level 17.

  ***

  “That’s looking pretty good, Ali.” A calm deep voiing from close behiartled Ali out of her focus.

  She turo find Mato standing there with an of breakfast. Surprised, she gnced around, realizing that several hours had passed in a fsh and that she was starving. She left her Grimoire floating in the air for the light it provided and gratefully accepted Mato’s creation – a ly ed breakfast sandwich. “Thanks!”

  She had made substantial progress, expanding her domain out to the cavern walls and stretg quite far into the space previously cimed by the Ruins of Dal’mohra dungeon. She had easily reached and filled the small cave with the ventition shaft and eveended far enough to incorporate the source of a sluggish, brown, and frankly rather smelly stream that fed into the rge ke to the south. All through her newly cimed area, the Verdant Moss and the on Glo mushrooms were beginning to pour their nature and are mana affinities into the air to weave into the intricate pattern that still eluded her uanding but represehe basic structure of her domain.

  “What do you think of making some open areas with grass?” Mato asked as he stood keeping her pany while she wolfed down the sandwich. “Or maybe some wildflowers?”

  Ali raised her eyebrow at him, her mouth still full of delicious breakfast.

  “I told you I wao help you with your forest,” he said, grinning with a broad, iious smile. “You ’t just make mushrooms for the rest of your life.”

  “I got a new imprint chapter a few ho, so I could try learning something new,” she said. It was only one imprint, and she had many things vying for the limited slot. There wasn’t a particurly urgeo get a new kind of minion, but the suppear and ons took lots of imprint space. Perhaps it was time to learn something new for her forest. Her father’s forest had been an idyllid beautiful space filled with geous orchids, wildflowers, and rolling grassy hillocks. If she could create something even a fra as beautiful, she would be ecstatic.

  “Excellent,” Mato said.

  “I guess I also have the worthless bone elemental imprint that I could free up, too,” she said after some thought. “What do you think is the most important?”

  “Grass, I think,” he said. “We should get that first. It has the most options for diversifying your enviro.”

  “Ok,” Ali said, a bit disappoio pass up on something pretty like an orchid or a tulip, but Mato robably right, there were tons of varieties of grass out there, and moss could only go so far to cover the ground.

  “Oh, look!” Mato excimed with an urgent whisper, pointing off into the trees.

  Ali looked, seeing nothing more than a rge oak she had pnted several hours before. She gnced back at him, but his attention seemed captivated by something, so she examihe area more closely.

  And then she saw it. A scampering furtive movement, and a flicker of nature mana that darted along the ground among the thick roots at the base of the tree. A few moments ter, with a high-pitched chirping squeak, a small shape shot up the trunk and out along the branch.

  A Hoarder – Squirrel – level 2 (Nature)

  “Oh, goodness! Where did that e from?” Ali excimed in a whisper, staring at the furry creature scampering across the brahe tree had not been pnted long enough for it to shed any as on the ground, so the squirrel was snagging them right off the branches, popping them into its mouth with a tiny flicker of mana each time it collected one.

  She had watched it store several as in this way before she reized the shape of the mana. It was simir to the structure of the entment that let her store things in her ring. Her eyes widened in surprise as she observed the squirrel tug away vastly more as than had any right to fit in its cheeks.

  “Is it using ste magic?” Ali asked quietly.

  “That would expin it,” Mato observed.

  “That’s so cool, I love it!”

  “I think the two biggest issues are light and water,” Mato said, hand going to his in thought as he gnced about. “I’m not quite sure how to solve that. But if you want to tirag creatures like the squirrel and those wisps, I think that aiming for a banced enviro would be an effective approach.”

  “My mushrooms e dirt and filth,” she said. “I tried it in the sewers, they the water a little bit.”

  “Why don’t we try it here?”

  Mato’s i and curiosity kindled a new sense of excitement within her. She had had her mushrooms for a while, but she hadn’t explored how they might affect the water in the cavern – there had always been more pressing matters to take care of. But now she had the time, and it helped to have someoo share it with.

  She summoned random mushrooms all along the edge of the dirty stream, creating a strange mystical garden – a riot of flig color and mana – and slowly, as the mushrooms began to work, thin streams of clear water began to emerge amid the muck of the sluggish, stagnant flow.

  “That’s really something,” Mato said, examining the results of their experiment closely.

  “The Deathcaps seem to do the most,” Ali said. “But I don’t think they have enough power to fully the stream, let alohat huge ke back there.”

  “It’s a start,” Mato said cheerfully. “Perhaps we just o find some higher-level mushrooms that influence a bigger area? Or try different species and affinities?”

  ***

  “Is there a bathhouse in this town?” Ali had made a habit of keeping a se circle active near her tent, and she used it regurly to take care of the dirt and grime she earned fhting her way through Kobold-ied ruins, but the idea of a rexing soak in a real bath sounded perfect after yesterday’s battle.

  “Yes,” answered. “It’s over by the bridge he city ter. It won’t take us long to get there.”

  “Maybe we do that before we go to the guild?” Malika suggested, which suited Ali just fine. “I mean, Mato, you have to take care of those bear-pits before your poor mother smells you.”

  “Thanks,” he snorted.

  The bathhouse was just as wonderful as Ali imagined. For a small silver, they purchased two private hot pools. One for the men, and one for the dies. Ali stored everything in her guild ring, ign the provided tainers, and then eled some of her mana into the heating entmeched into the pool. She was happy to see the pool was also equipped with a se entment, making the water sparkle with crity. It also meant the array of colorful soaps provided were more for the choice rahan out of y for ing.

  She climbed into the rapidly warming water a out a sigh of pleasure.

  “You too,” Ali told her Kobold Acolyte. She had decided t the Kobold with her to town, earning a few strange looks from passersby. The Kobold seemed initially unfortable ier, but as it heated up, she seemed to rex.

  “Hey, Malika,” Ali said.

  “Hmm?” Malika sat submerged so far into the hot water that only the top half of her face was stig out with her nose barely above the surface.

  “Is it always going to be so hard?” For most of the fight, she had been frantically reag to the mana of the massive undead wyvern, but she had not missed the close calls: barely-dodged talons or bone spears blocked at the st possible moment. She had to save from being impaled several times, and the slightest miscalcution would have lost her a friend. Even more terrifyihose moments when Mato had been impaled, or Malika had stepped in harm’s way in front of the wyvern’s cws to save him.

  “You mean, fighting monsters in dungeons?” Malika said, surfag a little to speak.

  “Mmhm,” Ali said.

  “I don’t know, Ali,” Malika answered, her voice measured and thoughtful.

  “What do you mean? You’re the bat expert.”

  “I have trained in martial arts all my life, but when it es to delving into dungeons aing bosses, I’m just as inexperienced as you are,” Malika said.

  “Oh,” Ali said. She had not even sidered that she might not know. To her, Malika had always been the expert ohied to fighting and bat csses. “I guess I didn’t think of that.”

  They sat in silence for a few moments.

  “Does it scare you?” Ali asked.

  “Yes,” Malika answered. “I think we should try being more careful iure. This fight was hard, and we should probably have run away and tried again. Maybe get a few more levels aer equipment before we try something that hard again.”

  “I guess so.”

  “Ali, what’s really b you?”

  “I ’t help thinking that he put the duhere to kill me when I woke up,” Ali said.

  “The Blind Lich?”

  “Yes,” Ali said, shivering for a momee the heat of the bath. The ce of him being a neancer and the dungeon being poputed with undead had been gnawing at her for a while now.

  “Why do you think someone so powerful would care about a person without a css?” Malika asked. “I’m n to be mean, but why would you be important to someone like him?”

  “I don’t know,” Ali answered. She remembered every word of the versatioween Nevyn Eld and her mother. He had craved her mana. Mana that he thought Ali had ied. “I saw him, Malika. When I was trapped in my mother’s spell. He spent hours raging against it, trying everything in his power to destroy it.”

  “I’m sure he’s fotten by now,” Malika said. “It’s been three thousand years, right?”

  “Right,” Ali said, trying to believe the words.

  “Besides, we just get stronger.”

  “Ok,” Ali said. She was already far stronger – but how could someone like her ever hope to bee as strong as him? And how strong was he now, after all this time?

  She and Malika passed the rest of the hour chatting quietly, but mostly in silence. When she finally emerged, Ali felt rehe tension she hadn’t even noticed in her small frame was entirely wiped away. Even her s about the Blind Lid his undead dungeon had faded into the background of her mind, not fotten, but not houndihoughts as they had been before.

  “Let’s use the fancy clothes Lydia made for us,” Malika suggested as they dried off. “We do a little more advertising for her store.”

  “At least we’re now,” Ali said, grinning.

  “Better not to distract potential ts with our smell, you mean?”

  “Exactly! Let’s go find Mato and .”

  ***

  Mieriel gnced up at Ali as she ehe guild hall and then her eyes flickered briefly to the Kobold Acolyte by her side, before she reached up to touch her gsses, calming the freically flickering magiations in front of her eyes.

  “Hi, wele back,” she greeted them with a smile, “How I help you all?”

  “I’d like to turn in the Kobold exterminatio,” Ali answered, levitating herself up to a more fortable height in front of the desk. Mieriel was once again wearing a stylish outfit Ali had never seen before, and she wondered if the guild administrator had ever worn the same outfit twice.

  Out of habit, Ali identified her, curious to see if she could see her level now.

  Spy – Sun Elf – level ?? (Mind)

  What? Ali was certain she had identified Mieriel before, and equally certain she would have recalled something as dangerous as mind magic.

  Mieriel’s eyes narrowed, and tiny wisps of mana formations appeared arouemples. Ali experienced a sudden dizzy spell as if the room had lurched sideways for a moment. She caught herself oable as she noticed the notification in front of her twisting and ing, but it returo normal as soon as her mind cleared.

  She stared at Mieriel in shock, about to say something. Mieriel frowned, and her hand touched her gsses, triggering a much stronger burst of mana that made her eyes shift to a deep violet glow for a moment.

  “You ok, Ali?” Malika had a steadying hand on her shoulder as she looked around in fusion.

  What was I doing?

  Analyst – Sun Elf – level 18

  The notification hovered in front of her for a sed before she dismissed it.

  “I help you with the Kobold quest,” Mieriel suggested with a light smile. Perhaps it was just Ali’s imagination, but for some strange reason, Mieriel seemed tense.

  Oh yes, the quest.

  “I like your dress today,” Ali offered as she moved to press her guild ring to the offered parying to shake off the strange mental lethargy that seemed to have afflicted her just now.

  “Oh yes, I just love Lydia’s Allure, she makes the best outfits!” Mieriel’s smile seemed much happier this time.

  Bronze Guild Ring – level 1 signifying bronze-level membership with the Adventurers Guild.Owner: Aliandra AmarielQuests: Eliminate hostile Kobolds in and around Myrin’s Keep – 187 Mana: Store or retrieve an item. Capacity: 11.5 / 25kgCreated by Giddy Clicksprocket.Ring

  “Wow, you guys did a lot of work,” Mieriel plimented her as she tallied up the gold. “Be sure to e bad che with me when you reach level thirty. I upgrade y to a silver-level membership. It es with a lot more ste.”

  “Thank you,” Ali answered, st the money pou her ring.

  “I also posted a few new bronze quests on the board,” Mieriel said, right as Ali was turning to leave. “If you guys liked the Kobold quest, one of the farmers reported a rge increase in Kobolds st night, and he was hoping that someone could help him out.”

  “Ok, thanks,” Ali answered, heading for the quest board.

  Last night. The timing was too exact to be a ce. Had her destru of the bone spire and the subsequent unraveling of a rge part of the dungeon domain caused this? had mentiohat he couldn’t find a single Kobold in the upper-level ruins on the way back.

  Ali felt a pang of guilt at the idea that she might have iently unleashed trouble on some poor unsuspeg farmer.

  When she reached it, Ali gnced over the quest board, finding two new quests posted in the ter. The guild hall was quiet this early in the m with just a couple of people sitting at the bar, chatting quietly among themselves. The new mert, Weldin Thriftpenny, looked up with i as Malika approached.

  The first quest was a job posted by a farmer named Sigurd. Apparently, his farm had been attacked by a rger-than-normal group of Kobolds who had killed one of his pigs, stolen all his chis, a fire to a portion of his orchard. He was a reasonable amount of silver for someoo take care of the pests for him.

  Ali reached up and took the quest, w if she should be taking payment for a job to fix a problem she might have caused.

  Right beside it, her eyes caught the word ‘mushroom’ on a sed quest, and she leaned in to exami a little closer.

  It was a straightforward colle quest. A local herbalist was asking for ten ‘Brown Stonecap’ mushrooms. Acc to the listing, the mushrooms grew in mountainions or caves, and their mih magic affinity meant they were useful for creating armor potions. Potions which were now in short supply after the garrison had used up so many during the Goblin siege. The paper was signed by an ‘Eliyen Mistwood’.

  Ah affinity mushroom might be nibsp;Ali thought, recalling her versation with Mato. Perhaps it would be something she could use to clear the water even more. Even if not, it seemed the reward for this quest was rather high, so perhaps she would be able to sell some iure.

  She reached out and took the mushroom colle quest too. Quest and job etiquette were a little plex it seemed – and there was even a set of guideliacked to the top of the board. Feneral unity quests, like the Kobold oblierminatios, the ring tracker was used. But if the quest was a one-off, you were supposed to actually remove the quest posting from the board in case someone else tried to do the same job. Not that there were enough adventurers in the guild to collide much, but still, Ali was a fan of good principles, and the rules seemed to make sense.

  Ali stored the two job requests and floated herself over to where her friends were browsing the guild store. Malika was still engaged in an animated and passionate debate about quality and eics with an equally intense Weldin Thriftpenny, in what seemed to be the closing arguments of an epiegotiation.

  “I have three kids to feed,” Weldin decred. “There is no way I accept su atrocious offer!”

  “You told me you don’t have family!” Malika tered.

  “I don’t, but it’s the principle, young dy.”

  “Don’t ‘young dy’ me, I’m older than you are!”

  Ali wasly sure how any of this was relevant to the pile of items and gold oable, but they both seemed to be having a great time, so she simply browsed the shop instead. The verted meeting room had turned into a rather professional-looking store. Weldin had removed the entire front wall, leaving it open to the main guild hall, and it was brightly lit by a few well-pced entments. Ali found many of the items that she and her friends had collected from the Kobolds on dispy, but there were a few other things she khey hadn’t supplied.

  Front aer on the main dispy table, she found a colle of colorful potions, including mana, health, and stamina potions, and her personal vote for the ‘most essential potion in a dungeon’, the potion of recall. The powerful smells of caramel, mint, and vanil emanated from the dispy – fvors included by the alchemist to make the harsh taste of the ingredients more patable. There was a nicely designed sigifying the potions as having been sourced from the Pretty Powerful Potions alchemy store, where she and Malika had fought Adrik and Edrik to save the Gnomish alchemist with her shog pink pigtails. From the dispy, it was clear that the two Gnomes had already fed a business partnership.

  On aable, she found an artfully arranged set of steel daggers and swords that she thought she reized. Getting close enough to have to wrinkle her nose against the strong smell of ons oil, she firmed that each of them had Thuli’s mana signature inscribed on them. I guess Thuli did follow up.

  Ali had initially been uain about the idea of a guild store, but it seemed that this Weldin Thriftpenny took his new job quite seriously. He was already turning leads into business retionships, and stog iing and useful equipment. Maybe he will buy some of my arrows, Ali thought, sidering the value of the new Eimuuran steel Arrows of Accuracy she had picked up, or some of the Bone Arrows. She resolved to talk to Malika about it, because, if she had to iate the way Malika and Weldin did, she would be lost in two seds.

  “The Gnome likes our Kobold gear. Says it’s sized for proper people,” Malika decred, joining the rest of them. She was smiling, so Ali assumed the deal had gone well.

  “Here you go,” she decred, tossing a pair of sturdy, but otherwise unremarkable, leather boots at .

  Given his surprised rea, Ali looked a little closer.

  Simple Boots of Swiftness – level 15+5% to Movement speed+8 DexterityRequirements: Dexterity 53Feet – Leather

  Oh, those are nice, Ali thought. Not that she would ever use anything like it, but had been looking for potions to make himself run faster after their experiences in the library, and now Malika had found him a perma movement speed enha on a new pair of boots. It didn’t look like a big improvement, but was beaming. “I use these and still drink mana potions,” he said.

  “I also got these,” Malika said, deftly ing her wrists and hands with dark taher s. “It seems uild mert shem in the marketpce, thinking he could butter me up with them.”

  “It worked, didn’t it?” Weldin called out from where he was ying out his new acquisitions.

  “ime, Gnome, just wait till ime!” Malika retorted.

  Weldin just chuckled and tinued with his arras.

  s of Accuracy – level 17+8 Dexterity+6% to Accuracy ratingRequirements: Dexterity 60, UnarmedHands – Cloth

  “Unarmed gear is rare and hard to sell, so I did him a favor by buying it,” Malika said loudly enough to be overheard. And then more quietly she added, “But yes, these are amazing for my css.” Malika quickly shared the remaining gold with each of them. “I got five gold for the lesser bone essence.”

  Ali hadn’t thought about it much, but it was easy to trust Malika with their money. She always shared it fairly and expined how she was w it out and where it all went when she spent it – such as the two items she had just purchased. She took a smaller share of the gold, ating for the value of her s.

  “I found these two job requests on the quest board,” Ali said, retrieving the two pieces of part and ying them oable for the others to see. “What do you think?”

  “You want to kill more Kobolds? Just at this guy’s farm?” Mato asked.

  “I’m holy a little worried that I’m responsible for that,” Ali said. Yes, and I feel ashamed, so please, let’s go with it.

  “You think it might be a dungeon-break?” Malika asked quietly.

  “Yes, when I destructed that spire, it damaged a rge k of the dungeoill don’t know where all the remaining monsters went,” Ali said.

  “Unfortunately, the timing fits,” said, firming her reasoning. “Also, this is a good idea,” he said, tapping a finger against the sed job. “It seems to be in the same location, so robably do both at the same time.”

  “We’re good at killing Kobolds, I’m in,” Mato replied.

  “Me too,” Malika said. “Regardless of how it happened, we should help the townsfolk. It’s not like it was on purpose anyway.”

  timewalk