If there wasn’t, then the creatures in that sweltering room really needed a new hobby.
A black blade lay suspended in the air, held up in a cradle of shining webs. I say blade, but it was more a shard of obsidian, barely shaped and looking very much like a piece of frozen lightning. It was only half-completed, the blade ending jaggedly at about the halfway point, considering the size of the thing.
It exuded an aura of power that sent my teeth rattling.
I’d expected forges and crucibles. There were none of the sort. Instruments more fit for torture than smith’s work lined the walls—or, at least, what little of the walls I could see for the mounds of obsidian.
The light came from a creature chained in the middle of the room, a kind of gigantic slug or worm. It was huge, head scraping against the tall ceiling, flesh black as tar, mouth like a cone of knives. It was held in place by thick iron chains latched to the floor and ceiling.
It made the breathing sounds and dwarfed the other three monsters in there.
Two black temple spiders scurried about, while a giant of a furnar gatherer worked on the sword. It had its back turned to me, but even so it was to the average hulk what that hulk would be to Crystal.
I shuffled a bit closer, still hidden in the shadows outside, to get a better look. The spiders I knew intimately, my freshly healed scars throbbing at the mere sight of them.
The furnar was a whole different beast entirely. I don’t think it could’ve fit through the door to get out. When it turned, I spied its mechanical arms, looking like something out of an X-Men comic, chrome-shiny and sleek and so damn large. All my bones shuddered at the thought of that thing striking me.
Mounds of obsidian shards filled the rest of the room. The spiders skittered daintily across the mountains of loose rocks, selected the largest shards and filled white satchels that they carried on their back. One was just completing this task. It scurried back down to the worm and, to my surprise, fed it the shards.
A sound like an angle grinder followed as the creature began glowing even brighter. Its jagged teeth rotated and its underside lit up like a nuclear furnace. Seemed I’d found the missing crucible of the forge.
The huge brute rose from where he’d had been working on the blade, lumbered up to the worm, and cupped his hands beneath its terrible mouth. The head atop that grotesquely swollen body was half-metallic, chrome mandibles moving with the urgency of a sewing machine.
Like the ants before, the worm spat out molten rock, straight onto the furnar’s cupped hands.
I have never seen a more bizarre process for anything, and I’ve once been at a chicken processing plant. That was just heartless. This was fucking weird. For as much as the spiders fed the worm, what it spat out was barely a drop that the huge monster went and slathered on the sword, wiping it on with his bare hands, then beginning to shape it.
It reminded me of a glass blower’s work.
They were melting down obsidian in a giant worm to make a giant sword out of whatever it vomited out. My jaw hung slack.
“What the fuck?” I mouthed the words, too dumbstruck to make a sound or move for fear of discovery.
Shards of glass covered part of the furnar’s arms, apparently melted slag that had cooled on him. It doubled the threat I felt from it.
I was sure of one thing and one thing only: I did not want to meet whatever could wield a sword that big.
I was less certain if I wanted to disrupt this whole operation or not. Two spiders and a truly big furnar glitch artefact. And the worm. Those teeth looked like they could render meat off bone in less than a minute, so tangling with it was an equally appalling prospect.
But, maybe there would be a reward if I did kill this group? Something to use?
I shook my head and bit the inside of my cheek. Now was not the time for this sort of thinking. And I wasn’t anywhere near strong enough to tackle those four, not if I’d learned anything on this whole delve. For the first time since building my class, I really, really regretted not getting some magic. A couple fireballs and maybe I wouldn’t even need to fight?
Unsure if I was doing the right thing or not, I retreated and snuck towards the other door, then out into the gloomy torch-lit half-night of the cavern.
I walked right into a hulk.
I stared at it. He’d emerged from between the nearest hovels, carrying a full sack on his shoulder.
He stared at me. I saw my reflection in those large, black eyes.
I raised my shield.
He swung his bag.
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My feet left the ground even as I braced for impact. I flew and smashed heavily through the wall of the nearest hovel. Thankfully, the wall was rotted wood and not more stone. I don’t think I would’ve survived the crash, not that my head wasn’t ringing right that very moment, and my back screaming in pain.
The bag had exploded and thrown the furnar off its feet.
I found mine first but didn’t stay and fight this time. A crowd gathered around the building, formed of countless small furnar, each of them revving up those mouth blades. I took one look, hated my odds, cursed all the pain that bloomed in my spine, then leapt out through the same hole in the wall I’d come in.
The crowd quickly swelled to a mob, the buzzing noise engorging into a roar. So many eyes reflected the weak torches that it looked as if I was staring at a starlit night somewhere in the countryside, back on Earth.
I had a terribly short moment of ill-timed homesickness, then survival instincts kicked in. I mentally slammed [ADRENALINE SURGE] and burst forward, shield raised, sword lowered.
I’d seen the path up. The building had been in front of me when I’d come in, towards the left side of the hollow with the stairs. Which meant I would now head to the right shelves of stone, then begin climbing. I was pretty sure the stairs were on the highest level, so that’s where I was aimed.
Hands reached out to grasp me, in that dream-like slow speed. The small ones, at least. The larger ones reached for me as if I were standing still and one almost grabbed me by my whole damn face. I stared for half a heartbeat at the three metal claws headed for my eyes, then ducked at the last moment, went into a roll, and exploded back to my feet right as three small furnars slowly turned my way.
Nope. Wasn’t even going to try and fight. I got my shield back up and burst through, shouldering aside the critters as if they weren’t there.
The settlement was all just rickety hovels, little more than wooden cubes that would, maybe, resemble some sort of mining village somewhere. Here, I couldn’t see its point. I couldn’t imagine the glitch artefacts going for a lie down or a nice meal after chewing rocks all day.
What added to the feel of unreality was how flimsy the walls were. I got cornered after taking a too narrow gap between buildings and found myself sandwiched between two hulks. They both reached for me at the same time, claws extended, chrome fingers promising broken bones.
I did a ninety degree turn and threw myself at the nearest wall. At, and straight through, into a dark, empty room. With those two bastards out there, I did the only sensible thing, and kept running. The next wall posed little more challenge. Then I was out again, and running face-first into the next home.
The shield made for an excellent battering ram as I cut a straight line through the village, one building at a time.
It crossed my mind, just barely, that I shouldn’t be able to do this. No matter how energetic I felt, no matter how good the shield, the fact that I was running straight through wooden walls without missing a beat or even tripping was fucking absurd.
Was I stronger? Or was I so far into panic that the absurd was the only direction left?
Before I could find an answer to my short-lived moment of introspection, I cracked the final wall and found myself running up the incline of a narrow shelf, rocks crumbling by my feet. I didn’t dare a look back and only stumbled when my MP ran out. No matter. My [SURE FOOT] kept me up and going. I was… reasonably certain I’d made the right choice.
A glint of reflected light to the side had me hitting the ground on my belly, scraping myself raw on the rough rock.
Something exploded above my head and shards of obsidian and powdered stone dusted down on me.
My friend on the other side was back and his throwing arm was a fantastic as before.
It took me two heartbeats to get back to my feet, and one to bring up the shield before another rock almost blasted my head off. It hit the shield, spun me around, and slammed me into the wall. My whole right side got scraped raw against the rough stone. But I did not stop running. Some noisy commotion built up behind me, followed by the heavy sound of bodies hitting the rock floor, then more running feet.
They were chasing me up the shelf. Ahead, a furnar worker tried to bar my path. I ducked another projectile and slammed my shield into the furnar drone, sending it flying over the edge.
I was almost there. The end of the climb was in sight, approaching rapidly.
But so were the village hulks. I felt the rush of air on the back of my neck as a bag of obsidian almost knocked my noggin off. I cursed and ducked, aware that it was too late. But it was just in time for another projectile to miss me.
I didn’t even slow as I reached the final hollow, turned right, and leapt for all I was worth. I remembered my improvised caltrops. Almost didn’t and that would’ve been a fucking hilarious way to die.
The sound of heavy bodies hitting the floor chased me up into the stairwell. I didn’t dare stop as I took the stairs two at a time, racing up the spiral as fast as my legs could carry me. Every moment I expected another blow to the back of the head, and that lent me wings and speed such as I’ve never felt before.
Nothing hit me. Nothing followed. There were no frenzied steps dogging my trail and there were no too-big monsters trying to climb the narrow corridor.
But my thundering heart drowned all that out well until I burst out through the final door, back into the temple, chest threatening collapse after all that effort.
I spun on my heels, drew the sword, raised the shield, and faced the door. My breaths came fast and shallow, and my heart was somewhere in the area of my uvula. Any moment now, I’d have to hold off the army of hulks from down there and survive them somehow. At least here I had more room to move and fight.
Any moment.
Any moment now!
The moment never came. My breathing calmed. My heart slowed. And still nothing followed me from the depths. Stupidly, I crept forward until I could see into the stairwell. I stuck my head in and looked down over the curve, half-expecting some of the furnar bastards to be hiding there, waiting in ambush.
Nothing. I hadn’t been chased! I managed to survive and escape.
[CONGRATULATIONS]
[YOU HAVE DEFEATED: FURNAR DRONE DEVIANT x1]
[YOU HAVE TRAINED: SURE STEP - INITIATE]
[THIS SKILL HAS REACHED ITS CURRENT THRESHOLD]
[UPGRADE AVAILABLE]
[YOU HAVE TRAINED: SHIELD BASH - INITIATE]
[YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 7!]
[YOU HAVE GAINED: 1 ATTRIBUTE POINT]
[YOU HAVE GAINED: 1 SKILL POINT]
I sucked in a greedy, deep breath and let it out all in a sigh, my whole body deflating with a shudder of anxiety. I’d gotten a level for surviving, and now I had two skill points to spend. The attribute went straight into constitution.
“Why are you here, human?” a voice like the purr of a tiger spoke right behind me.
I froze. I’d felt hot breath on the back of my neck. And could feel now a warm, large presence behind me.
I turned slowly to stare into the blood-red eyes of the statue come alive. The scowl she gave me showed an impossible number of glistening, black fangs.
The smallest was the size of my thumb.