Aliandra

  The tunnel out of the Fme Broodmother’s ir wound steadily downward, occasionally narrowing enough that they were forced to proceed single file. Every so often, they paused to clear Fme Spinners from dimly glowing side caves, or Lava Lurkers from the ever-present pools of va. It took ages, but leaving moo creep up on them from behind sounded like a disaster waiting to happeually, the rough-hewn tunnel widened, opening into a wider, straighter passage that had been cut through the rock by a stone mages. What had once been a smooth stone floor was marred by deep gouges, like somethiremely heavy had been dragged away. Lava spilled from cracks in the walls, pooling here and there, making for extremely treacherous footing for her friends and minions.

  As the end of the passage came into view, Ali found herself staring at a massive, reinforced stone archway, through which a flickering red-e light spilled.

  ’s eyes seemed round as saucers. “What is this?” he breathed.

  Mato chuffed, not b to swits to talk, but Ali could feel the teasing i in his void body nguage.

  “This is the Landing,” Ali said, finally reizing something down here. “It’s where the supply lines for all the various mining operations ected. There should be several passages leading on to differeions of the mine. One of those passages should lead to where Thovir Emberfe had his fe and anvil.”

  Excited, they approached, but as they reached the broad archway reinf the tunnel against untable tons of rock above, Ali gulped as the cause of the glow preseself. The expansive chamber beyond the archway that had once been the Landing was filled with restlessly shifting elementals of pure fme. Heat rolled out from the opening like standing before the open door of a furnace.

  Living Fme – Elemental – level 61-65 (Fire) x15.Shard of Fme – Elemental – level 35-41 (Fire) x23.

  The familiar Shards of Fme circled around the perimeter of the chamber, dangerous in their ht, but appearing small and insignifit beside their t cousins.

  Large enough to make even Mato or look puny, the Living Fme elementals had cores of deep blue fme so dark it might as well be bck at the ter. Red-e fmes flickered and danced as they glided across the heat-shimmering stohe closer she got, the louder the ambient roar of surging fmes dominated Ali’s hearing.

  “This looks nasty,” Malika observed.

  “One of the bigger o the back is a boss,” said. “Actually, I think it might be both of them.”

  “What now?” Ali asked. She hadn’t even noticed the rger Living Fme elementals at the back, t eveheir kin, but what she did see was the intense aura of fire that suffused the entire Landing.

  “I think I get some of these to chase me out here,” said thoughtfully. “If it works, we could fight them o a time iunnel back here.”

  “I’m game,” Mato announced, having finally shifted, unsurprisingly eager at the prospect of a new fight.

  Ali g Malika quickly, who answered, “I think we should at least try. Just be careful, we don’t know what these may do. Be ready to run or recall if it goes badly.”

  Reflexively, Ali checked oash of recall potions, reassuring herself that she was set if things came unstuck.

  Ali backed up into the tunnel again, drawing her minions with her, and waited while vahis time, she happily hat she could make out the barely visible streamers of his mana ing the area he passed through. The slightest trace of light affinity against the heavy cloak of fire and va affinities. I’m gettier at seeing him. When he used mana skills, provided she knew what she was looking for, she could see him with Are Insight. Or at least, she could see the effects of his presence like an ied shadow of light. I should tell him, Ali noted, knowing he would want to train his skills to be as uable as possible.

  She studied the strangely distorted mirage of his mana as he cautiously ehe room and paused there, presumably choosing an appropriate target, or waiting for an opportunity only he could see. The slightest flicker of mana was Ali’s only warning that he had acted. An intense fsh of light appeared as an arrow smmed into the closest Living Fme elemental right as it glided into a retively open space.

  Hissing like water spshed into a scalding pan, the elemental turned and surged towards the archway where ’s form had suddenly bee visible as he sprinted back to where they all waited.

  “Face him away, just in case,” said as he ran past where Mato was waiting in his Bear Form.

  Mato just snorted, inf his friend in no uain terms that he knew his job.

  With a throaty roar, Mato engaged, charging the elemental. He Swiped across what looked like the torso of the vaguely humanoid pilr of self-sustaining fire and spun it around so that his back faced the archway instead of the group. Mato’s fur ignited iensity of the elemental’s aura, filling the tunnel with the stench of burnt fur and cooki. Bsts of firebolts shot out at Mato, crashing into the walls and flying into the Landing beyond the archway. Gd that’s not aimed at me, Ali thought, ereg a protective barrier just in case. Her own skin began to burn and blister, and she backed away even further to get out of the aura that was quite a bit rger and more potent than the smaller Shards of Fme.

  But the fme felt strange, almost rejuvenating. It even looked strange, red flecked with the dark blue-bck from the elemental’s core.

  “Is… the fire regeing my mana?” Ali asked. It was tricky to tell over the chaos of battle, her attention already diverted a dozen ways already by the incredible damage output from the Living Fme.

  “Mine is…” said, surprise registering in his eyes. Immediately, his rate of fire doubled as he filled the air with light-affinity mana and arrows.

  Mato’s health spiraled in freefall, and Ali pushed her kobolds to heal more. A rge heal nded, stabilizing his dwindlih before he nded a powerful strike with his right paw. His green mana flickered, and his health became substantially more buoyant, tig up from the bined magic of nature and holy healing. An heal nded and Ali breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Attack,” she ahe rogues stalked forward, visible to Ali only via her minion perception skills. The shamans and the Hobgoblin rushed in with no thoughts of stealth. Screeches and hooting calls broke out as all of Ali’s melee minions caught fire in the oppressive aura rolling out from the giant elemental. Shaman shields sparked brilliantly, corusg as sparks cascaded out onto the ground.

  “Fuck, that’s a lot of damage,” Ali swore, the fshes of retaliatory fme that burst from the elemental with every bde that struck it. Her e to her Acolytes’ Healer’s Sight told an even grimmer picture.

  “Is it manageable?” asked.

  “Maybe… we’d better kill it fast,” Ali said. “Faster.”

  To Ali’s left, the brilliant pilr of holy radiance shone forth as the first Acolyte burned her Devotion skill, boosting her holy magid accelerating her healing. It was a remarkable skill, but it had limits. For thirty seds, the health of everyone in the fme aura stabilized, and Ali trated on attag instead of w. Still, when the Acolyte’s radiance faded, their health began to dwindle rapidly.

  Twenty seds ter, the sed Acolyte burst into a pilr of radiance.

  And when they run out? The skill had a long recharge, and Ali did not have unlimited Acolytes. “Shamans, back up,” she anded. “Lightning Bolts and totems only.” At least at range, her shamans wouldn’t be taking nearly as much damage – it wasn’t much, but hopefully, it would help the healing to go further.

  Ali’s thoughts were suddenly wrenched back to the Living Fme as mana surged and then suddenly densed within its core, an unfurling blossom of fme that roared with power.

  “Watch out!” she shouted. It was all she was able to get out before an intense spherical shockwave of pressed fme bsted outward, tossing her minions into the air like dolls in a hurrie. Her hasty barrier shattered instantly, and Ali felt a disorienting moment of weightlessness before her body bounced off the rock wall and everythi dark.

  Ali groaned as she came to. She was face down with an unfortably hot jagged rock pressing into her cheek. I’m burning? Groggy, she raised her head, and the memory of the fight came ba a rush. Half her Hobgoblin y burning in a puddle of va. Corpses ues were strewn about and one of her shamans seemed to be impaled on a sharp sliver of rock half the wall. Beside her, an Acolyte stirred. Of and Malika, she could find no sign. And Mato…

  She turned in horror, realizing he had been on the opposite side of the explosion. Within the Landing, there was a otion. Mato’s bear charged towards her from where he must have been flung like a ragdoll, and he was being chased by at least six angry Living Fme elementals.

  No! Don’t bring them here! She scrambled to her feet, struggling to fiored recall potion while gestig wildly to him. But, even covered with rapidly burning fur, the grim focus on his face gave her sudden pause. He’s going to die. Ali’s eyes widened in horror as his body charred ient overpping auras of fme. His personal nature-affinity healing had dwio a fading spark. Even at this distance, Ali’s skin began to crisp and sear from the onrushi.

  I o… Mato needed help.

  The heat vanished and the fmes froze, fading to gray as Are Recall gripped the world. I just need a few seds… a little space. Everything hinged on how long her Guardian could st in that fire. With a mental gesture, she maed her Grimoire and iill silence of her most potent spell, she summoned a Forest Guardian, watg the flow of her spell as it wes way to pletion as if blissfully uned about the tense backdrop of the frozen instant.

  “Go!” she screamed the instant the world restarted. The enormous wood elemental let out a grating roar and charged for the archway.

  Are Recall has reached level 11.

  Please be enough!

  As Mato approached the archway, Ali teleported out of the fmes, switg with an Acolyte that was running frantically down the passageway to reach her, talons glowing with a readied healing spell. “Heal Mato!” she yelled, eyes – and borrowed perceptions – locked on the burning bear. An instant-cast Restoration spell fshed with the bright color of holy mana, pulsing softly. The terrifying plummeting of Mato’s health slowed while Ali held her breath. Fifteen pert…

  Heat began to mount once mrowing more and more intense as the pilrs of vengeful fme glided toward the tunnel, but Ali’s Kobold stood there, robes on fire, casting another, much rger and slower healing spell.

  Mato’s recharge must have just expired because he suddenly charged, pulling ahead of his pursuers briefly, right as Ali’s Forest Guardian shot past him and smashed into the pack of Living Fmes. As Mato passed beh the enormous archway, Ali smmed her stro barrier across it, taking advantage of the tiny gap created by his charge and her Forest Guardian’s surprise attack. Mato’s jaw cmped down on the diminutive Kobold Acolyte’s shoulder, scooping her up as he tio run. Behind the glittering barrier, the Forest Guardian bzed out like a fming torch. The Kobold dangling from his jaws did not even pause for a moment, casting her healing magitinuously. Ali turned and ran, shoving more and more mana into the barrier that blocked the archway.

  “Run, Mato! Go!” she shouted. Forced to rely on her legs, she rapidly fell behind, uo keep up with Mato, but she had a skill he did not. As soon as she sensed she was in range, she teleported ahead, sing pces with a Sparkling Ooze that had been bsted further up the tunnel. Her barrier shattered, a casg tinkle like the breaking of gss that was felt through her mana. Pig a narrow se of the tunnel, she snapped a new oo pce, leaving enough capacity for a small personal flying disk.

  She ranged ahead with her senses, but most of her minions were gone, killed by the enormous explosion or the burning fire of the domain ohey lost healing. Back down the hallway, brilliant fshes of white light and muffled thumps told her the Living Fmes had found her Sparkling Ooze. Apart from the Kobold dangling from Mato’s jaws, she had just two shama. Both were up ahead with and Malika who were rushing back dowuo rescue them.

  As Ali zipped around a er and caught sight of them, she yelled, “Run!”

  The fshes of light bombs ceased with the snap of her reservation breaking, and moments ter Ali’s sed barrier shattered. She threw up another, right behind them as and Malika abruptly reversed dire and ran.

  They were almost ba the jungle by the time Ali realized her final barrier had not been shattered. Just to be safe, she let everyone keep running until they emerged from the mines. “I think they gave up,” she said, bringing everyoo a breathless halt. “My st barrier is still intact.”

  “That was fun,” Mato said, making a wry expression.

  “Fun? You were down to fifteen pert health!” Ali excimed.

  “Yeah, I know. Thanks for savihat was some quick thinking.”

  Ali calmed down as she realized he had been making a sarcastient rather than being his usual bat junkie self.

  “That was too close,” Malika said. “Far too close.”

  “How did you survive that, anyway?” Ali asked. “And why were ying the elementals to me?”

  “I used Last Stand,” Mato said. “I could see you lying there unscious, so I was going to use Charge to reach you, switch, and then hit you with a recall potion.”

  “But you were on fifteen pert health…”

  “Yep,” Mato said, no trace of his usual cheery smile on his face.

  “You would have…” Ali trailed off, uo tinue. He would have died… The reason Mato typically did not transform out of dangerous situations to use potions was that his Natural Prowess skill boosted his vitality attribute – but only in Bear Form. Transf dropped his maximum health by a lot. Even if his desperate pn had worked – and that was a big if – he would not have survived.

  “Yup. I’m gd you had a better pn. I’m not that much of a hero.” Liar. Gazing at him, Ali’s lower lip trembled. He reached out and squeezed her shoulders with his big arm. “Whatever. We’re alive and that’s what ts.”

  “So, what should we do now?” asked.

  “Dinner,” Mato said firmly, and added, “We will thier after we are calm and fed, and you know that food is the ultimate recipe for everything.”

  Yes, and that he had to say it was a measure of how shaken he was.

  ***

  Ali woke the m feeling physically refreshed, but mentally worn down by the worries that had pgued her sleep.

  The discussion that began over dinner yesterday weo the night with everyoually turning in without a clear resolution. Obviously, Mato would not be fighting the elementals with his back to the archway iure. But besides that, the inescapable clusion was that they were just not strong enough. Either they o drastically increase their health, or they needed even more fire-resistance equipment – likely both.

  It had been some time since Ali had done her dungeon maintenance chores, and as her mind roamed her dungeon, she he growing piles of corpses and trash. Needing something to take her mind off the immediate worries, she wrote a quiote letting her friends know she would meet them at the guild ohey woke up and headed out into her forest cavern with her personal guard of minions following her.

  Her first stop was the shrine. During the day, while they couldn’t scour the town for useful stuff, she had her trash collector Kobolds gather any corpses littering her domain to pile them up beside the Grove. That way, she only o make oop to destruct all of them.

  She gritted her teeth and destructed the mangled remains of the assassin, before tag the pile of zombies, skeletons, and random mohat her defenders had taken care of over the st couple of days.

  Variant: Cavern Crawler added to Imprint: Spider.

  She dismissed the notifications for skeletons and zombies, only the low-level spider being of any use or io her – although, she already liked Seth’s Tunnel Weavers better. Still, she dutifully summoned oo familiarize herself with any useful skills or abilities it might have.

  Then she made the rounds through the sewer tunnels, destrug the nearly unmanageable piles of trash. All the junk yielded several new s, some variants of wood and stohat she hadn’t seen before, and a bunch of worthless imprints that she immediately discarded.

  Hmm… not very useful, is it? When she had read about the sger dungeon’s strategy, she had had high hopes for the idea but, while she wasn’t about to abandon the pn, it roving to be much less effective than what she had imagined. Unless she was willing to invade people’s homes or shops for stuff, she was uo get much more value with this pn. Uhere’s another siege e-scale fight, she thought, but then caught herself with a grimace. Wishing for war was not a thought that sat well with her.

  She had not earned any usable monster imprints this way, for obvious reasons. But she had received a great spider variant from Seth’s quest. Perhaps a better strategy is to use the guild? She had more than enough moo put up a few colle quests.

  Ali shelved that idea for ter and turned her attention to her real purpose for being in the sewer today. She had gaiwo levels from fighting the Fme Broodmother. This had meant a three pert redu per level in the reserve cost for her entire minion army – everything in her dungeon was a little cheaper – and she had ied all twenty attribute points into wisdom. While she wasly rolling in mana, she felt positively flush pared to what she had been eking by with the st few weeks.

  And that brought her to the sed thing she realized she had learned from the Fme Broodmother enter. The Emberfe Mines owerful dungeon, and hers itiful by parison. It was not just that the domain itself burned intruders, but the first boss of the Emberfe Mines could have wiped out all her minions, bosses included. It wasn’t even a raid boss. It was entirely unfair that she didn’t have enough mana to afford a good sele of bosses at her css level – she had minions with enough mana to do it, so why not herself?

  Well, one minion. She couldn’t afford another Forest Guardian boss.

  Ali finally found herself at the spot she had been searg for. It was a crossroads of sorts – five tunnels joined in a small chamber, all the flows merging into a single rge outlet, roughly in the ter of the entire sewer system. Probably right beh the marketpce if her sense of dire wasirely haywire.

  This should do. She pushed the walls of the chamber backward, her Grimlowing as she created stone and brid fed it to Domain Mastery. It took maybe ten mio widen the chamber to an appropriate size for the boss she had in mind. Carefully, she adjusted the els to make them less uniform, meandering a little, and creating a modest-sized pool in the ter.

  Her mana lit up the appropriate imprint, and in short order, she had her minion.

  Toxic Slime – Ooze – level 5 (Poison).

  Perception, for sure. Her purpose for this boss rimarily to ehat fewer assassins made it down into the forest cavern ued to somehow be trampled by her Forest Guardian. Or at least give her forewarning. Her sedary purpose was to have something a little easier for the new guild members to practi.

  Quickly, she selected the choices she and had hashed out st night over dinner during a break from the interminable fire resistance problem.

  Domain Respalied to Toxic Slime.Boss Domain Enha applied to Toxic Slime.

  Attribute Enha (Endurance) applied.Attribute Enha (Perception) applied.

  Domain Enha plete.

  Your reserved mana has increased by +44.

  Only forty-four mana? She and had worked out all the details in adva seeing the number in her notification drove home the reality of it. A level-five monster cost her almost nothing pared to something closer to her css level. Even a group threat boss – something that would challenge a whole group of level-five adventurers – cost her o nothing.

  Choosing the lower ‘boss’ domain enha gave her new boss a quicker respawn time than a raid boss would have had – four hours instead of six – which suited her goal of having a sentinel in the middle of the sewer.

  , she chose to implement ’s gestion, quickly creating a small assortment of low-level ons and arrows, spreading them around the chamber, and attag them to the domain too. thought this would give the novices a strong iive to test themselves against the boss, and Ali was happy to provide rewards that would make them stronger – a bit of a ramp-up before they o face her Kobolds. She finished up the room by adding a few poison traps.

  The rogues are going to hate you, aren’t they? she thought, slipping her awareness into the mind of her oxic Slime boss to survey the world through its senses. She had quite a lot of experience using slimes for this purpose, and instantly she felt the shape of the sewers all around her, feeling the flow of the water through the els, and the heartbeats and footsteps of her various monsters crawling through the tunnels. To her delight, the perception enha substantially boosted the range of the ooze’s Tremor Sense, and she could ‘see’ clearly what was going on several tunnels away.

  Perfect, she thought, happy with the easy success. She flew off to che the Tunnel Weavers she had installed in what she was now thinking of as the ‘spider wing’ of the sewer. A se of tunnels and rooms closer to the Kobold raid where the average level of the monsters was a little higher.

  Her spiders had certainly been very busy, and this entire se of the sewer had a creepy spider-ir feel now, with dense webs c the ceiling and walls, and draping down to the ground from above in many pces. Lurking in the web overhead were many watchful eyes.

  She reached the end of the tunnel and stood in the ter of the chamber, looking up at the ceiling.

  “You, e down here,” she said, and the Tunnel Weaver that had made its ir above desded on a thick strand of spider silk, an a so simir to the Fme Broodmother’s dest that she shivered even though she was in no danger.

  Tunnel Weaver – Spider – level 8 (Poison)

  She touched the spider’s smooth carapace with her fiips and bound it to her domain mana.

  Domain Respalied to Tunnel Weaver.Boss Domain Enha applied to Tunnel Weaver.

  Again, she wanted a sentinel in the dungeon, a mohat could provide some early warning of intruders and incursions, so her first pick had to be perception. Besides, the Tunnel Weaver had some iing perception skills to work with.

  Attribute Enha (Perception) applied.

  For her sed choice, she wasn’t quite certain if her skill would allow it. Teically, poison affinity was a subset of nature, although it depended highly on who you chose to ask. She chose the Affinity Aura option, and to her surprise, her notification chimed.

  Affinity Aura (Poison) applied.

  Seems to work. That’s great!

  Domain Enha plete.

  Your reserved mana has increased by +77.

  Her spider’s bck carapace swelled, growing substantially rger as the domain mana rushed through its body, enhang its power. The pressure of the powerful domain enha bore down on the domain ttice as if weighing heavily upon the mana. Although the choice of the boss enha was noticeably less powerful thawo raid bosses, she was quite sure it would prevent having another simir boss in this space.

  She studied the phenomenon carefully, filing it away for the ime she was in the mines. Being able the phenomenon might just give them an early warning of an uping boss enter. It seemed to be somehow reted to the domain’s may, and how much magical load the structure could bear. Theoretically, her own domain in and around the library should be able to support much miven that the density had been so dramatically enhanced by the elder tree that grew there. If I learn to detect the strain on a fn domain…

  Affinity Aura snapped on as her magic upgrade pleted and toxic green mist billowed from the abdomen of her empowered spider, filling the room. Before it could engulf her, Ali snapped a spherical bubble around herself and bahe rest of her retio the tunnels outside. It wasly a huge threat to her, but there was no reason to sit in the poison. For a level-eight party, this would provide a substantial challenge for healing, or for their ability to sourtidote potions, but against her high-level magical resista barely itched.

  As soon as she released it, the Tunnel Weaver boss rapidly climbed back up and cealed itself among the webbing on the ceiling.

  For this boss, the web itself would provide the hopeful novices with a substantial reward. Malika had checked the current market rates, and the adveag this boss would find themselves quite well rewarded by the tailors’ and weavers’ demand for quality monstrous thread. Still, she spent the time to fill the nooks and ies at the edges of the chamber with Forest Amanitas and even three small Violet Dreamclouds to offer a reward that would ihe herbalists and every css that used poisons. The Amanitas were a great low-level poison, acc to Basil, and the three Violet Dreamclouds were substantially more valuable, providing a potent ingredient for soporific potions or poisons. It didn’t take long to attach everything to her domain so that it would respawn automatically if harvested, and she finished up by inscribing a feing Roots traps ihe room.

  She ected with her Tunnel Weaver boss and reached out through its senses. She saw the chamber rather blurrily and in various shades of blue and what looked like ultraviolet through its stra-eyed vision, but that was not the sense she was most ied in. Its perception magic pulsed through the web us eight deadly venom-slicked legs, and she simultaneously saw the pulses rippling out in waves through the web. She felt the world through the he entire body of the spider acted as a resonator, and the sense, much like that of the oozes, used vibration to carry information about the world back to the spider in its ir. But this spider could sense mana, and the ra could see around the web strands was rge enough to perceive herself as she stood all the way down there on the floor of the chamber.

  Now I o inform the Guildmaster about the new bosses, so there are no actal deaths. Sigh. A dungeon’s work is never done.

  ----------

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