Lord Sorcerer: Singularity Online: Book 3 Page 25

  Aranos nodded, twisting his lips. She’s right, he told himself. Focus on your mission, don’t get distracted. “Thanks, Saphielle,” he told the blue-haired woman with a smile. “Let’s get moving and see if we can sneak past these things.”

  The morning had gone more or less the way they’d expected, with the exception that their encounters with uruk patrols had become a bit more frequent and more challenging. The spearmen and swordsmen were occasionally accompanied by larger warriors wielding hammers or axes, doing significant damage to Silma and Saphielle even through their armor. Witch doctors were common, as well, meaning that Aranos had to focus more on support and less on DPS. They’d discovered that the best tactic seemed to be for Aranos to open combat by casting Deadly Vapors to force the formation to break up or perish. Geltheriel slipped behind the group to start taking out the archers, while Silma and Saphielle attacked pairs of scattered melee warriors and Rhys kept them healed. Aranos focused on the magic-wielders, interrupting their Spells and removing any buffs or debuffs they cast until either one of the Warriors had disposed of their foes and could move to help the others, at which point Aranos took out the witch doctors.

  At one point, they’d faced a swarm of thirty or so bogez, small, black-skinned creatures that reminded Aranos of goblins. The three-foot-tall creatures simply charged them, swinging crude weapons made of bone, wood, and stone, obviously hoping to overwhelm the party with numbers. Saphielle had met their charge with one of her own, smashing into their lines with her Shield Charge and stabbing with her spear. Silma and Geltheriel attacked them from the sides aided by Aranos’ Gust of Speed, not even bothering with Stealth against the manic creatures, and Aranos targeted individual ones with Composite Bullets while Rhys used his Entangle Spell to slow them down and bind them. The creatures attacked without tactics or any attempt at coordination, ignored any threats except whoever was in front of them, and were essentially a mindless mob. It only took the party a couple of minutes to tear through them; only Silma had taken any damage, and that had been a few minor scratches that healed nearly instantly due to the increased LP regeneration her amulet gave her.

  They encountered two more attacks like that, plus one where the standard bogez were joined by a handful of larger goblins wearing tattered leather armor that Geltheriel said were akin to champions among the small creatures. Despite their armor, though, the new warriors fought just as mindlessly, so even though they took more damage before falling, they didn’t really present a greater danger. At the same time, these encounters didn’t offer much experience, either, since they weren’t much of a challenge for the party. There didn’t seem to be a point to them, really, since they didn’t inflict any significant damage on the party, and whatever resources the party used were regenerated within minutes.

  “This is a common tactic among the races of the urukkai,” Geltheriel told him when he mentioned his thoughts to her. “Bogez and uruks both breed at a ferocious rate and tend to despoil any lands they inhabit overlong; thus, their masters must cull their numbers regularly. They are often sent to patrol nearby lands with the understanding that they will likely not survive any significant threat they face.”

  “So, they’re just fodder?” he asked a bit dubiously. “That seems wasteful. I mean, couldn’t their masters find some way to make them useful?”

  “Indeed, the rulers among the urukkai do not simply squander their lives,” she acknowledged. “Even in their deaths, they serve a purpose, for in dying they alert their masters to the presence of something dangerous in the vicinity. By tracking which parties vanished, they gain a sense of the potency of this threat and the direction that their destroyers are moving.”

  “Meaning they’re both fodder and an alarm system,” he said with a grimace. “Let’s hope, then, that their masters aren’t paying much attention or don’t think that we’re very dangerous.”

  “It seems that it would be far wiser to presume the opposite, Redeemer,” Saphielle pointed out. “Never think yourself wiser than your foes, or the opposite will surely be true.”

  Always assume your enemies are smarter than you, he reminded himself. “Good call,” he agreed. “Not that it matters; we have to fight them to get where we’re going, but if we assume that killing them tells someone else that we’re here, we can be prepared for something more dangerous, later.”

  And now, staring at the mighty citadel of Cendarta, he saw what that greater danger was. If the urukkai held that entire city, they could send out a force that were too powerful for the party to handle. Heck, if the creatures reproduced the way Geltheriel suggested, they could just overwhelm the elves with human wave attacks and not bother risking their higher-level minions. I just hope that whoever – or whatever – is running that fortress couldn’t track our movements closely enough to extrapolate about when we’d be arriving. If they did, sneaking past is going to be a lot harder.

  The party dropped into Stealth and moved silently out, Silma ranging in front, Geltheriel taking the rear. Aranos kept his eyes open and his senses questing; Silma’s perceptions were still better than his, even with his Perception boost, but his Tracking Skill could tell him things her nose wouldn’t be able to. He glanced constantly toward the distant fortress, as if he would be able to tell if their passage was being detected, even though the figures were far too distant for him to make out anything specific.

  As they moved, Aranos felt…off. Something was tickling the back of his mind, and he wasn’t sure what it was. He relaxed his focus as they walked, trying to allow his subconscious to call forth whatever was troubling him, but his sense of unease just grew. The minutes passed endlessly as they crept under the watchful gaze of the massive fortress, but the heaviness in his mind kept growing.

  This is ridiculous, he told himself. You’re probably just worried about being spotted. You’re fine; they’re really far away, and you’re in Stealth. How could they spot you?

  Aranos hesitated at that thought. That’s…a really good point, he realized. They’re too far away, and anyone trying to pass through here would do it in Stealth. How would they ever catch any group smaller than an army? What’s the point of even watching if you can’t really see anything…unless they have another way to watch?

  With a growing sense of alarm, he reached out with his Sense Mana Skill, questing around them cautiously, confirming his worst fears. The air around them was alive with mana; it clung to all of them, wrapping them in its embrace. He skimmed through the weave of the Spell with his mind, finally finding a thin line of it that led off somewhere ahead of them, and he cursed as he dropped out of Stealth, glancing back at the distant fortress. Are there fewer of those flying things overhead? he wondered silently. Maybe it’s my imagination…

  “Oathbinder?” Geltheriel spoke in a puzzled tone, also dropping from Stealth. “Is something wrong?”

  “Yeah,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair, detailing what he had discovered. “I should have thought of it,” he finished, frustrated. “Now, they know we’re here, and they’ll probably send a party after us.”

  “Did you not say that the source of the Spell lies ahead of us?” Rhys pointed out. “It does not sound as if the citadel is the one being alerted, Liberator. Perhaps we have only to contend with whatever waits before us.”

  “And do we then assume that whoever lies in wait ahead has no means of communicating with Cendarta, Druid?” Saphielle scoffed. “No, I am sure that both those ahead and those behind are alerted to our presence.”

  “And it is likely that those ahead lay in wait in the very waystation we will need to occupy before nightfall,” Geltheriel pointed out. “If the Lieutenant is correct, even if we overcome them, we will then spend the night defending our position against assaults from the citadel.”

  Aranos stopped his muttered cursing and took a deep breath. Calm down, he instructed himself severely. No point in being angry. “I think you’re all right,” he agreed. “It makes more sense for them to patrol the road from t
he waystations than to try and watch from a far-off fortress, but we also have to assume that whoever’s ahead will be in contact with the city. Even if we get past them, it’s likely the citadel will be sending a force after us. That means we’re going to have to take the waystation and hold it against whatever is chasing us or bypass it and try to keep going all night.”

  “That is not an option, as well you know, Redeemer,” Saphielle shook her head. “While I believe we would survive a night of travel on the road, we would move far too slowly and would be overtaken by pursuers from both Cendarta and the waystation, and be far the wearier when we do. While we may not lose Stamina as we travel the High Road, we do accumulate Fatigue debuffs.”

  “I must ask,” Rhys spoke up, “If the Spell is the concern, can you not remove it? I have seen you undo Spells, Liberator. Should we not simply do that and continue forward as before?”

  “Well, I think I could disjoin the Spell,” Aranos replied. “But it’s possible for me to do it in a way that hurts the caster, too. That might be a useful surprise if we end up having to fight them. The only problem with that is that if they can track us, we might be the ones getting a surprise.”

  “That is my thought as well,” Geltheriel agreed. “Perhaps it would be better to remove the Spell and avoid the possible ambush?”

  Silma was watching them quizzically as they spoke. She turned to look at Aranos, her head cocked quizzically to the side. Did you know that I can’t smell you or track you, no matter how hard I try? Whatever you’re doing to hide your passage, why not do the same thing to the Spell? Can’t you block it so that it’s active but won’t give away our position?

  That’s…maybe a possibility, Aranos replied silently. I might be able to modify the Spell so that we could hide from it without undoing it.

  “Give me a minute, everyone,” he said, sitting down on the road and closing his eyes. “Silma had a great idea, but I’ll need to look into it a bit.” Not bothering to wait for their response, he slipped his mind back into the Spell surrounding them, examining the spell-form more carefully. He started at the linkage, where power trickled into the hanging construct, and followed the energy flow, trying to parse out what each part of the Spell did.

  It’s really just a marker Spell, he realized as he untangled the Spell’s connections. This part attaches it to us, sort of wrapping around us like a Velcro net; that part sends little pulses of magic back down the link. I don’t think it tells the caster exactly where we are, just that we’re getting closer – I’ll bet you would need two of these Spells to be able to triangulate our exact position. It’s more like radar than GPS.

  He studied the spell-form thoughtfully, trying to figure out a way to mask their approach without destroying the Spell. Well, let’s break down exactly how it works, shall we? he asked himself. The caster can feel those returning pulses of energy. The closer we get, the faster the pulses will make it back to the caster; that way, the person tracking us can sense that we’re approaching. What I want is to make the energy returns take longer to get back to the caster, so they think we’re actually moving farther away.

  He examined the part of the Spell that sent the energy back to the spellcaster. It was a pretty simple construction; it took a tiny part of the cycling Spell energy and redirected it back down the link connecting the caster to the Spell, allowing the rest of the mana to continue to sustain the Spell. What I need to do, he realized, is to attach part of the Spell to this location, right here, and have the pulses redirect through that. Then, as we get closer, the energy will have to travel from us, to this spot, and back to the caster. It’ll take longer to get back, so the caster will think we’re moving away.

  He imagined an anchor, secured to the ground, almost like a pole driven into the earth. He pictured the Spell around them sending its return pulses to that anchor, the energy wrapping around it before returning to the Spell construct. In his mind, it was like pulling a loose strand of the Spell and looping it around his anchor, redirecting the energy. He added his own mana to the spell-form, trying to link the existing Spell to his construct, gently nudging the power flows out of alignment and into his mental image.

  The Spell resisted at first, its inertia working to keep the flows unchanged, but he added more power, and he felt the Spell connect to his linkage. He added more SP to the anchor, solidifying it and ensuring it would last for hours, at least. Finally, he opened his eyes and rose from his contemplations.

  “I think that’s got it,” he smiled. “The Spell’s still on us, but the caster should think we’re moving away from them now instead of getting closer. They might even send anybody chasing us in the wrong direction…at least, until they actually spot us.”

  Rhys blinked. “I was unaware that it was possible to alter a Spell in such a way,” he spoke slowly. “Is it possible for you to teach that to me?”

  “Probably not, but I can try,” Aranos shrugged. “I think it’s part of my Class, but maybe anyone can learn. We can work on it tonight.”

  “In any case, what you have done will be indeed useful, Oathbinder,” Geltheriel interjected. “It will make our Stealth all the more useful, as now our foes will be seeking us in the wrong direction.”

  They dropped back into Stealth, but this time, Aranos kept his Sense Mana Skill active, watching the Spell shrouding them to make sure his modification had worked, and reaching out with the Skill to test the area around them. His deception would only succeed, he knew, if they didn’t accidentally trip a second trap further on.

  Using the Skill this way sort of reminded him of how he utilized his Tracking Skill, and he was half-hoping that there would be some sort of Skill synergy between the two – an Arcane Tracking Skill, maybe, he imagined – but instead, he found a different pair of notifications waiting for him:

  Spell Created: Spell Anchor

  Rank: Novice 1

  Create a stationary construct to which you can attach other Spell effects.

  Effect: Creates a stationary, invisible Anchor that another Spell effect can be tied to. The secondary Spell will remain tied to the Spell Anchor, even if you move away from it. If the secondary Spell has a duration longer than instant, its duration matches the Anchor’s, even if normally it would have lasted longer. Attaching the Spell to the Anchor requires SP equal to the Spell’s cost plus 50% (on top of the cost for the Anchor). This cost is reduced by 1% per Spell Level.

  Duration: 1 hour. This duration can be extended by increasing the casting cost similarly: spending double the SP makes the anchor last for two hours, and spending triple the SP extends the duration to three hours.

  Cost: 150 SP

  +250 XP

  I’m just gonna leave this here for a bit…

  Skill Gained: Spell Sculpting (Untrained)

  Rank: Novice 1

  Allows you to alter existing Spell effects

  Effect: You can change an existing Spell effect, adding a single function to or removing a single function from it. Doing so requires additional SP equal to the Spell’s original cost +50% (+75%).

  You can instead boost or diminish a Spell’s effectiveness: you can add to or subtract 1% (0.5%) from a Spell’s duration or power (not both) at a cost of 10% of the Spell’s original SP cost, to a maximum of 10% plus 1% per Skill level (5% plus 0.5% per Skill level). Every level of the Skill reduces the SP cost by 2% (1%)

  Special: This Skill may only be used on Spells that have a duration longer than one minute. You can only add an effect if you know the requisite Spell; you can remove a function if you would be capable of casting a Spell that mimics that function (even if you have not learned the Spell yet). Altering another’s Spell requires an opposed check only if it is being actively, not merely passively, maintained: your [Int + Skill level] versus the opponent’s [Wis + Spell level].

  Int +1

  So, changing that Spell gave me a new Skill, he thought silently. I guess disjoining Spells doesn’t count as Spell Sculpting; you must have to alter the Spell in a way tha
t leaves it intact. The Skill seemed like it might be useful for changing other people’s Spells but didn’t feel like it would be much use for his own. After all, he could alter his Spells as much as he wanted already, and probably for a lower overall SP cost thanks to all his Perks and Titles.

  They traveled in silence for over an hour before Silma loped back into sight, her nose quivering. There are a pack of creatures lying in wait up ahead, she sent silently back to Aranos. They smell mostly like uruks but are a bit different. I’ll see if I can spot them. Before Aranos could say a word, the wolf slipped forward, scouting. The aleen shook his head, resigned to his fenrin companion’s independent nature and seeming fearlessness. Instead, he signaled the others to halt and settled in to wait for Silma to return.

  The fenrin padded silently into sight several minutes later. Aranos’ newly enhanced Scent Ability picked her up long before her silvery form shimmered out of Stealth; her Skills there seemed to have grown beyond what even his heightened Perception could pick up. Found them, she told him, sending him an image of a half-dozen emaciated, gray-skinned creatures hiding behind tumbles of rock along the edge of the Road. I think the same number are hiding on the other side of the road, as well.

  “She thinks there are about twelve creatures waiting ahead in ambush,” Aranos translated quietly for the others, describing the lurkers’ scabrous, gray skin, their lean, vulpine features, and their wicked-looking claws and talons. “It looks like they’re waiting for something to pass by.”

  Geltheriel looked slightly concerned by his descriptions. “I believe these to be gorruks,” she told her companions. “If this is true, we must be cautious. They are not difficult to kill, but their arms are long and quick, and their talons drip a poison that slows their prey and eventually paralyzes them.”