Chapter 124 - Sand Through the Hourglass

  Maggie sighed as Cameron led the way out the only exit from the rat room. She’d figured the gas mask would keep the sound from being too audible, but apparently she was wrong.

  “You okay?” Cameron asked.

  “Yeah, just not thrilled about more water,” Maggie replied. She waved an arm toward the exit. “I was enjoying not having to wade through sludge for a minute.”

  Cameron chuckled. “You should try it without the mask.”

  He’d lost his, earlier. Maggie winced a little. As gross as this place was, at least she couldn’t smell it. “No, thanks!”

  They pressed on, descending a few steps back into the slimy, foul water that filled another passage. Cameron stayed a few steps ahead of her, ready to block any monsters that tried to eat them. He was incredible. The way he’d waded in against those giant rats, just busting them up? How could you not be impressed?

  Maggie wasn’t even sure why she was there. Cameron could tackle this place by himself. He was carrying her through all the fights. He clearly didn’t need her help. So, why bring her?

  Part of her wondered if it was because he was trying to keep her safe. The look on his face when she’d told him she’d been infected by the werewolf curse looked…it was hard to describe, really, but he looked hurt, like her infection had somehow wounded him. It had vanished as quickly as it appeared, leaving her wondering if she’d actually seen it at all. Did he have her along just so he could Cleanse her the moment he got the spell?

  Maggie shook her head. That didn’t make sense. Surely, she was in more danger from the dungeon than she was from the curse, right? Or was Cameron so sure of his skills and powers that he was confident he could keep her alive, even in this place?

  There was no way to know, so she shoved the thoughts aside. The idea that someone as important as Cameron cared what happened to her appealed, for sure. But he'd lost his girlfriend in pretty much the most horrible way someone could. Any care he had for her was probably the same sort he offered to seemingly everyone he met.

  They kept slogging their way down the passage. It wasn’t two minutes later that something grabbed Cameron’s leg under the water. Whatever it was thrashed, flipping him sideways.

  “Cameron!” Maggie shouted. He was already under water.

  With her boosted stats, maybe she could help, this time. Maggie rushed forward, watching as clawed feet and pebbled skin flashed briefly above the water as the monster rolled itself over. Some sort of reptile, from the looks of it. Maybe a giant crocodile-type creature?

  All at once, Cameron surged up, his head and chest breaching the water. His hands were locked around the top and bottom jaws of a massive croc. It strained to close its jaw, but he held the maw open, blasting it with his Drain Life spell. Black fire flickered and burned around the monster’s jaw and head.

  Maggie found herself wishing she had a ranged attack of some sort, too. If she had anything that could hit at a distance, she could use it to land a blow or two and help. She didn’t. What she did have was a very strong Heal, though. She fired that up, casting Heal on Cameron to finish repairing any damage he’d taken during the initial attack.

  With a powerful wrench of both hands, Cameron tore the top half of the creature’s jaw away from the rest of its skull. It thrashed desperately for a few more seconds, then collapsed back into the water. It was dead, at last.

  “Holy crap, that was amazing!” Maggie said. “Sorry I couldn’t help more. I wish I had some sort of attack I could hit with at range. I could pelt them with shots from behind you.”

  “Well, I have a few Ice Blast stones I could give you, but I only have five, and they’re tier one,” Cameron replied. “You could get a tier three, basically, but that’s it. Still, better than nothing. You have a free spot, right?”

  He fished the stones from a pocket and handed them over to her.

  “I do, yeah,” Maggie replied. She let four of the five stones sink into her palm, merging into a single tier three inside the socket. New memories washed over her, telling her precisely how to cast the spell.

  She raised a hand and with a flick of her wrist sent an icicle the length of her forearm smashing into the sewer wall.

  “Not bad!” Cameron said, grinning. He pulled a large crystal from his satchel and handed it over, too. “Getting you some Will stones would be good. You’re building a good caster base, so that’s important. Will impacts your mana pool. It’s what determines how many times you can cast, and how fast your mana restores itself.”

  “Got it,” Maggie replied. She took the stone without further comment, well past continuing to protest. What he’d said before about how making her stronger helped him was true. She socketed the stone. “I might pull the Entangle if we find something better, though. I wouldn’t mind a Natural Armor stone.”

  “Yeah?” Cameron asked, standing back up. He held another large crystal now, a grey one, this time. “You’re in luck. This guy dropped a tier six.”

  “Don’t we need to get you up to tier ten for Natural Armor, though?”

  “I want that. Badly. But like I said, I’ve already got a tier nine and tier eight Natural Armor slotted. I’m pretty tough. You’re our weak spot, and we need to shore that up.”

  Maggie nodded and took the stone. She popped out the Entangle, and it shattered. “Shit!”

  “What?”

  She held up the broken stone. “Broke the green one.”

  She’d been worried he might be mad, or at least disappointed. Cameron just shrugged, though. “Getting you a strong build is the key here. Sometimes you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet, and all that.”

  Maggie absorbed the grey crystal, her mind flooded instantly with a rush of new information. Socketing these crystals was still a weird experience, although she was growing more used to it fast. It felt a little like she was getting plugged in to some machine that fed her memories, thoughts, ideas, and powers, until she could sit up afterward and be like ‘I know kung-fu.’

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  They pushed on and ran into more monsters almost immediately. A collection of grey slimes came at them, oozing along the ceiling and walls. Maggie spotted them before Cam did, this time. She nailed one with an Ice Blast that froze it solid. The creature dropped into the fetid water, which only served to encourage the rest to speed up.

  Between a combination of Cameron’s Drains and her Ice Blasts, they quickly took them down. These creatures were only tier three, but there were a dozen of them. They got a pile of additional crystals, and once again Cameron handed them all over to her. She picked up three Heal stones, three Strength crystals, two Will crystals, one Charisma, one Intellect, and one Agility.

  After that fight they went a while before they ran into any further trouble. The waterlogged tunnel continued for hundreds of feet, the glowing fungi on the walls still shining the way. It wasn’t a lot of illumination. Just enough to give the place a dark, creepy vibe. All at once though, the waterway ended in a set of steps climbing to a barely-lit chamber beyond.

  Cameron paused, holding up a hand to warn her to do likewise. Maggie froze while he peered into the room ahead. Then, he turned back to her.

  “There’s monsters in the room,” he whispered. “My NightVision lets me see them. Bunch of humanoid-looking things huddled toward the back wall. They’re armed with hand weapons. I don’t see any bows, but they could have spells, so be careful. I’ll move in first. You hit them with ranged attacks from the doorway while I keep them busy, okay?”

  Maggie nodded. “Got it.”

  Cameron slogged up the steps, free of the water at last. Maggie followed right on his heels, but as soon as Cam hit the doorway, he rushed inside, leaving her behind.

  Half a dozen reptilian beings hissed and advanced against him. They were all tier seven. This wasn’t going to be as simple a fight as the others had been, not at that rank. Maggie blasted one with a spell, but although the Ice Blast hit, the icicle shattered without penetrating the creature’s thick hide.

  “Strong defense, Cam!” Maggie called out.

  He punched one hard enough to send it sailing ten feet back to crash into the wall, but it popped quickly back to its feet.

  “So I see!” Cameron punted another one of the lizard-men, then punched a third.

  A sword swing slashed at him. Moving so fast that he looked like a blur to Maggie, Cameron sidestepped. The blade still bit into his thigh, just below the hip. He cursed and hit the creature with a Drain, which closed the wound.

  Maggie peppered the enemy with Ice Blasts, firing as quickly as the spell’s timer reset. It was soaking up a lot of her mana, and even with her recently-boosted Will, she couldn’t keep this up forever, but it was making a difference. She nailed one in the face just as it was about to stab Cam. It staggered back, dropping its weapon so it could clutch both hands to the spot where the dagger of ice punched into its snout.

  Cameron dispatched it before it could recover. Then he snapped up the weapon it had carried, using it to deliver a devastating blow to one of its buddies.

  One of them skirted Cameron, coming directly at Maggie. She snarled and snapped off an Ice Blast, but it dodged, then launched itself at her, sword slicing through the air. Maggie dove sideways, her Agility saving her from the attack.

  “Cam!”

  He whirled, saw the problem, and fired off a Lightning Bolt that took the creature in the side, tossing it back into the wall. It tried to rise, body still smoking from the attack, but Maggie finished it with another Ice Blast to the head.

  She’d killed it. For a moment, Maggie froze. She’d killed things before. Probably everyone who was still alive had been forced to kill something, at this point. But the things she’d killed were simple animals. They were fish, bugs, or similar things. This was the first time she’d slain something that carried a weapon and looked at least vaguely like a person.

  Maggie half-expected some immediate burst of remorse, but there was nothing. She didn’t feel bad at all. Was she broken? Had the world changed her so much already? A time wasn’t long past when she’d been the sort of person who carefully carried a spider outside rather than killing it. Now, she was killing sentient beings and…nothing?

  Weird, but not something she could worry about now. Not in this place. Maybe later, she could explore this. For the time being, she snapped the creature’s sword up from the floor and rushed up to stab another of the lizard creatures that was trying to get behind Cameron.

  It cried out as her sword bit through its thick hide, then tried to slash at her with its blade. Maggie parried, more thanks to her Agility-boosted reflexes and instincts than any skill with a sword. If she was going to carry a weapon like this, she was going to need to get some practice in.

  Another Ice Blast at point blank range finished the creature. She looked up and realized the room had gone still and quiet. The monsters were all dead.

  “Holy crap, that was fast,” Maggie said, panting.

  “Yeah. Speed run, right?” Cam said, flashing her a grin. “But it wouldn’t have been nearly as easy without your help. That’s why I gave you all those stones, see?”

  “I do, yeah,” Maggie replied. Without all the magic he’d handed her, she was a major liability. With them? She was a powerhouse! Certainly not on the same level as Cameron, but she could hold her own against creatures way tougher than she’d have guessed. “Why could I take out a tier seven, though? I have a tier eight Heal, but all my attack stuff is tier three or five.”

  “Because you’re well-rounded now,” Cameron explained. “These creatures are tier seven because they have a tier seven in at least one stat or spell, but that doesn’t mean they have tier seven in everything. Maybe they have a tier seven Natural Armor, like this guy I just looted, but their Strength might be tier one, or two. Ditto stuff like Stamina or Agility.”

  “That makes sense.”

  They looted the dead. All six stones were tier seven, but there was still no Cleanse! They found a Healing Aura, Heal, Will, Stamina, and three Natural Armor spells.

  This time, Maggie insisted Cam keep some of the stones, and he didn’t argue. He took the three Natural Armor and the Will stone, giving her the other three. Cameron socketed the Will stone first, then clenched his fist around the other three, absorbing all of them at once.

  He cried out softly as he sank to his knees, hands going to his head.

  “Cam! You okay?” Maggie asked, alarmed. She rushed to his side, a Heal spell already half-cast.

  Cameron waved her off. “Yeah, sorry. Didn’t mean to worry you. My Armor just ranked up to tier ten, and wow, is that a doozy. Opened up a new Point! I can add a sixth type of stone now!”

  “That’s awesome!” Maggie socketed her stones while Cameron recovered, which quickly slammed her with a headache of her own. One advantage to having so many stacked Heal spells, though—she could fix that. One spell later, the budding migraine was gone.

  She examined her list of available powers, astonished how much she’d grown in such a short time.

  Maggie’s Stone Setup

  Point 1: Yellow Stone (Tier 2) - Language

  +

  Point 2: White Stone (Tier 8) - Heal

  Point 2, Second Ring: White Stone (Tier 7) - Heal

  Point 2, Third Ring: White Stone (Tier 7) - Healing Aura

  Point 2, Fourth Ring: White Stone (Tier 5) - Heal

  Point 2, Fifth Ring: White Stone (Tier 3) - Heal

  +

  Point 3: Grey Stone (Tier 6) - Natural Armor

  +

  Point 4: Clear Stone (Tier 7) - Stamina

  Point 4, Second Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 5) Agility

  Point 4, Third Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 5) - Stamina

  Point 4, Fourth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 5) - Strength

  Point 4, Fifth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 5) - Intellect

  Point 4, Sixth Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 5) - Will

  Point 4, Seventh Ring: Clear Stone (Tier 3) - Intellect

  +

  Point 5: Blue Stone (Tier 3) - Ice Blast

  “But still no Cleanse,” Maggie said. That worried her. “How rare are those things, anyway?”

  “Pretty rare,” Cameron replied. “We only got a few from the entire run, last time. But we should be coming up on the final boss soon. Last time, there were a lot of little monsters we had to fight at the same time, which gave us a ton of crystals. If it’s the same again this time, I think we’ll be all right.”

  “I hope so. We should hurry, though.”

  Cameron paused, casting a glance her way. “Are you all right? You feeling okay?”

  Maggie staggered, a burning sensation building in her chest. She went down to one knee, head bowed. Not now, please! They were so close!

  “Maggie?!” Cameron asked again, his voice alarmed.

  “I think I’m out of time,” Maggie said, gasping through the mounting pain. She looked up, her bloodshot eyes meeting his as she ripped the mask off and gasped for air before collapsing to the stone floor.