Mage Tank

Chapter 42: Ashe, Ember, and Cole

While my gear was in the works I rounded out the day buying a variety of steel weapons from a mundane weapons shop, along with a couple shields. I also grabbed a couple different bows and all the arrows an irritable fletcher would sell me, which was a few hundred. All of that got tossed into my inventory for me to play around with later.

I had the cash, I needed to figure out what I vibed with, and it wasn’t that expensive to buy non-magical items. Plus I had the inventory space with my recent Closet expansion.

Ok, maybe my concept of money had been slightly distorted by my new wealth, since throwing down a decade’s worth of peasant wages was what I considered ‘cheap’.

I went back to my place and spent the evening and most of the next day training, snagging another plus one to Strength and Speed. I did my best to avoid Lito as I did so, but couldn’t help but get a few perplexed looks when he caught me mid-pump. I wasn’t about to sacrifice gainz to keep the Guardian from thinking me eccentric, or perhaps misguided as to how Delvers got stronger. Closing the deal with Seinnador had also gotten me a point of Charisma and offered the intrinsic skill Mercantile, which I seriously considered, but decided to pass on for the moment.

I would have liked to train more before the journey, but I was pretty happy with how my stats were looking.

Strength 8

Agility 2

Speed 6

Fortitude 22

Wisdom 10

Charisma 4

Luck 2

I mentally updated my power rating to sixty-four. Considering my level, I’d normally be a PR 26, a discrepancy that should continue taking people by surprise. I reminded myself to stay aware of that fact, in case there were any other unique cases out there.

The evening before our departure I went to Nuralie’s alchemy shop and helped her install a basic workstation in the Closet. She insisted that I move the entrance to the alchemy room for ventilation reasons. She had a few purification wards that she could place above the various beakers, alembics, and one straight-up witch’s cauldron, but said that there was no good replacement for fresh air.

The conversation reminded me that I didn’t know how quickly the space would be depleted of oxygen if we were forced to seal it and stay inside for an extended period. I mentioned it offhand to Nuralie and she decided there was a fifty-fifty chance that a purification ward similar to her own would remedy the issue, though some experimentation would be needed. Maybe I could just build a greenhouse? A really big greenhouse. Another one for The List.

The morning of, I traveled to Seinnador’s with Myria and Nuralie in tow, each of whom had a few last-minute purchases to make. Seinnador was kind enough to open up early, and we walked through the doors to his surface-level establishment just as the sun was beginning to peek out from the horizon. The east-facing mountainside gave a gorgeous view of the golden spectacle, and I couldn’t help but take a few minutes to observe the distant star shining through an unpolluted and crystal-clear atmosphere.

Seinnador helped me don my new equipment, and I was forced to do a little modeling for the trio.

“Wow!” said Myria. “Looking good for a newbie, Arlo.” She stepped around me as Seinnador took notes for potential adjustments on my next visit.

“It’s colorful,” said Nuralie. Pause. “Looks expensive.”

“True. I didn’t think Creation Delves paid so well, platinum or not. How’d you manage this?”

“Now now, ladies,” Seinnador chided, “a gentleman shouldn’t be asked the value of his armor. Yes, yes.”

Myria smiled and stuck her tongue out at Seinnador behind his back.

“Nor should a lady make such faces,” he said without turning around.

She ignored the mana-weaver and put a thumb on the handle of the mace hanging at my hip.

“Planning to try out smashing in some skulls?”

“Needed to have a fallback,” I said. “Mana doesn’t grow on trees. Unless it does. Does it?”

Myria gave me a quizzical look.

“Technically it grows in trees,” said Nuralie.

“I just thought they absorbed it,” said Myria.

Pause.

“Maybe.”

Having finished my adjustments, Seinnador helped Myria and Nuralie select a few ready-made items. Nuralie picked up a pair of shiny black gloves made from the skin of a giant serpent creature. They boasted several useful qualities–waterproof, fireproof, corrosion resistant, among others–and fit snugly around her fingers. Myria picked up a pair of rings that served to stabilize her body while performing acrobatics. We’d all been given a discretionary budget for “necessary items” by Umi-Doo, and everyone seemed determined to spend it.

I’d sort of forgotten about it, so I hastily bought a bundle of paralytic arrows and a half-dozen of what Seinnador called “Dazzlers.” They were some sort of magic flash-bang, and that seemed like a good thing to have.

“Planning on becoming an ambush assassin?” Myria asked, seeing my purchases.

“Well, I already have a pretty cool hood to make me seem mysterious and foreboding. Might as well complete the package. I don’t suppose you know where I can buy a tanto?”

Myria snorted at the shitty joke in a way that made her overwhelmingly cute, and I had to shake off a sudden wave of attraction like I hadn’t felt since the first time I met her in the offices above the Creation Delve. I didn’t think it was magical in nature this time, though. Did she know what a tanto was, or was the word translated to something that made sense in context?

We made our way to the meeting point along the main street that led from Formation down the mountain and into Foundation proper. Xim, Lito, and a trio of unfamiliar Delvers awaited us.

Two of them were women, clearly identical twins. The first wore a light, scale armor suit similar to my own, though it was gold and bronze in color. Her white and gray Hiwardian hair was tied up in a bun, and she lounged on a bench with her arms spread wide over the top of the backrest. She had bright blue eyes which were somewhat lidded, but studied me as I approached.

The second had on a set of what at first appeared to be form-fitting travel clothes, though the neutral-toned jacket and leather riding pants were thick and sturdy. I suspected the clothes were a disguised set of protective gear. Her own hair was woven into a single long braid that hung over one shoulder. She stood next to her more obviously armored twin and followed her gaze toward me.

The third was a slim-built man who stood at the exact same height as the second woman and had uncannily similar features, though distinctly masculine. He had a short, neat beard, the same dirty-white color that all three had up top, and wore a buckled crimson tunic that came down to his knees. He was speaking with Lito and paid no mind to our approach.

When Lito saw me, he looked me over and grunted.

“You look like you want everyone on the battlefield to know you’re there,” he said.

“I do have a sort of presence to me.”

“Hope you’re good at dodging arrows. And spells.”

“I don’t think Arlo dodges too much,” said Xim.

“Not for lack of trying,” I said.

“I don’t know,” said the crimson man, “if I saw a warrior on the battlefield wearing violet armor with fuschia highlights I think I might be afraid of them.” He scratched at his jaw. “They’d be insane, obviously.”

“I think I’m holding it together pretty well under the circumstances.”

Xim chuckled at that. Nuralie nodded, though I think she underestimated the number of things that might have been leading me to crack up.

“Arlo, Nuralie, this is Cole. Cole, Arlo and Nuralie,” said Lito. “Ashe is the one in the gold mail, and the one wearing suspiciously armored travel clothes is Ember.”

“Cole, Ashe, and Ember. That’s good theming,” I said. “Are y’all the triplets?”

“We are indeed,” said Cole.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I wasn’t sure how that worked. The two women were twins, but Cole was…what? A fraternal triplet? Was that even possible to have at the same time as twins? I didn’t want to accidentally offend, so I held back any questions. The biology of pregnancy and birth might be different here. There were people with scales and fur, after all.

Maybe I should check in Umi-Doo’s book.

Fortunately, Xim didn’t harbor any reticence with her curiosity.

“How’s that work?” she said. “Shouldn’t you all be identical cute Hiwardian women?”

Cole smiled.

“We used to be. However, the body reforging that occurs within the Creation Delve can be a bit more…comprehensive than most realize.”

“Wait, you mean-” I began, but Ashe cut me off.

“Cinder went through the Delve portal with an innie and Cole emerged with an outie.”

“It took most of a day for him to convince us he wasn’t some weird imposter,” said Ember, fussing with her braid.

“I still have my doubts,” said Ashe, reaching over with a gauntleted hand and giving her brother a shove. He staggered away over-dramatically.

“Can that happen to anyone?” said Xim. She sounded more fascinated by the chance of her gender having changed unexpectedly than concerned.

“I doubt it,” said Cole. “Half the reason I wanted to become a Delver in the first place was to figure out a way to accomplish that very thing. I think the Delve somehow realized that.”

“It’s not the destination of the Creation Delve that matters,” said Ashe. “It’s the dysphoria you shed along the way.”

“She uses that line every time we have to explain this,” said Cole with a sigh.

“What is dysphoria?” asked Nuralie.

Lito cleared his throat.

“Feel free to discuss in your own time, but we have a schedule to keep. Now that the introductions are done, let’s talk about our route and schedule.”

The eight of us formed up into a tighter group as Lito laid out a map of Hiward on the bench.

“The first leg of our journey will be via a merchant barge down Formation River to Lake Hollow. We were originally going to have to split between two vessels, but due to Arlo volunteering the use of his…Pocket…Closet…we’ll all be able to fit on one. There’s a Chovali colony near the river mouth where the barge will dock overnight, which we should reach a few hours after dark. The following day the barge will travel south along the edge of the lake to the city of Arsenal, where we will disembark, bed down at an inn, then begin the journey by land the day after.”

I looked over the map and tried to gauge the size of the lake at the center of Hiward. Based on the map’s legend, Lake Hollow was at least one-hundred-fifty kilometers long and about the same in width. I didn’t remember the specific sizes of the Great Lakes back on Earth, but I was pretty sure Lake Hollow was similar in scale to at least the smaller ones.

“Does anyone here not know how to ride a horse?”

“I haven’t done it in years,” I said, “but I should be able to pick it back up easily enough.” Assuming a ‘horse’ was a horse and not some weird fantasy version.

All I’d seen around Foundation were squat, lizard-like creatures that looked more like pack animals than something meant to be ridden. Were those what Lito meant when he said horse? Some of the animal names translated to something familiar, but I hadn’t yet seen any animal species that I would consider the same as what was back on Earth. The thought reminded me that I still needed to figure out what ‘ducks’ were and why Xim was so scared of them.

I looked around at the rest of the group. Nuralie and Xim both held up their hands.

“Alright,” said Lito. “A wagon would be too slow, so if three of our number aren’t confident riding saddle at a quick pace, we should run.”

“Run?” I said.

“Yes, run,” said Lito.

“You can’t be serious,” said Ashe, leaning her head back toward the sky. None of the group looked happy at the suggestion.

“Do you mean that we would literally be running the rest of the way?” I said.

“With your own two legs, no less,” said Lito. “So then, does anyone here not have a Fortitude of ten or higher?”

This time, only Nuralie raised her hand, her head dropping a bit in embarrassment. I looked over at Xim, who gave me a smile.

“Invested a lot of those fresh points in Fort, I see.”

“After what happened inside the Creation Delve it seemed like a good idea.”

Lito tapped a finger on the bench and fidgeted with his cigarette case in his offhand.

“Nuralie can just stay inside the Closet,” I said. “I’m assuming you’re asking since a Fortitude above ten provides enough stamina and regen that we can run through the day with minimal breaks.”

Lito nodded.

“The portal will open wherever you are?” he said.

“Yeah.”

“When you go inside and close it,” said Xim, “does it open back in the same place where you entered?”

“That’s right.”

“What if you go inside while on something that’s moving, like the barge? If you close the portal, does the exit stay where the boat is while it moves, or will the portal open back over the river where the barge was when you closed it?”

“Oh,” I said. “I have no idea.”

“We’re taking a wagon down to the docks,” said Lito. “You should experiment and figure it out on the way.”

“Sure thing.”

“After our stay in Arsenal, we’ll run south to the Northern pass into the Ravvenblaq thundry. It’s about a hundred-and-twenty-five kilometers, so we should make that in a day if we continue moving a bit after dark.

That statement made me take a step back. Assuming we were moving for sixteen hours, that math’d out to an average uninterrupted pace of around five miles per hour. Not exactly a speedy jog, but that was the length of a triple-marathon and I somehow doubted that we’d be staying on well-paved roads with helpful attendants handing us Gatorade and energy bars the whole time. We were running into mountains. The terrain would likely go from shitty wagon trails to shittier wagon trails over big ass hills.

“How much are we getting paid for this?” said Cole.

“Umi-Doo will owe us each a favor,” said Ember, fussing more anxiously at her braid. “Plus an emerald chip.”

“I don’t need the favor that bad,” said Ashe, shifting to set her elbows onto her golden thighs with a clink. “An emerald chip is nice… but running. Ugh.”

“I dunno,” I said. “Umi-Doo’s got a pretty good library.”

“He does,” said Myria with a distant look and a smirk.

“Once we make the pass,” said Lito, ignoring the grumbling, “we’ll turn west and follow the south side of the mountains for about seventy-five kilometers. This is where we will meet up with the Ravvenblaq group, consisting of the Ravvenblaq Thundralkes, Ealdric the Third, and Nola, along with the Xor’Drel chiefs, Drel’Gethed and Xorna. These four will serve as the core of our expedition heading into the mountains since they’re all B-tier Delvers. Ealdric and Nola’s son Varrin will also be with them.”

“I love power couples,” said Cole.

I quickly ran the math in my head. Lito’s group were all level twenty gold, which gave them a PR of 98. Ealdric and Nola were level twenty-one platinums, which was a PR of 186, while Xorna and Drel’gethed were level forty-three with what I expected was thirty gold and thirteen silver, giving them a PR of 164. Lito’s group would all fall into the D-tier of Hiward-official Delver classifications, while level one platinums like Xim and Nuralie were in F-tier. The tier names were pretty insulting toward the lower end, but maybe the letter-based grading system didn’t carry the same cultural connotations in Hiward as it did in many cultures back on Earth.

With my own current stats, I was in E-tier.

So far, I’d only encountered two Delvers who would be considered A-tier: Umi-Doo, and the mysterious blue-haired woman with the alabaster-hand spell. They were both level ninety, and their presences had been enormous to my soul sight. I shuddered to imagine meeting an S-tier.

From what I’d seen so far, there was a big leap in capability between average members of each tier. Typhoon had been C-tier and was able to fight off both Myria and Lito simultaneously. I was able to go toe-to-toe with the entire Artemix party, who were all F-tier, despite being level ten. Copper Delves were pretty trash for stat rewards.

Of course, I had some advantages in that fight, like Artemix not wanting to kill me, and fighting me inside of my own personal dimensional space inhabited by a blood-thirsty Delve core with mind-control powers, but still.

Thinking of Grotto, I hadn’t heard much from the little murder-ball in a day or so. He was busy constructing the new Obelisk layer and I’d been giving him some space. Still, I thought I better check up on him to make sure he wasn’t doing anything too nefarious.

“It’s then a twenty-five-kilometer hike north through wild mountain-land to make it to the coordinates for The Calvani Caverns. Any questions?”

“What do we expect to find at the caverns?” asked Ember.

“Myria gave you the rundown when recruiting you, didn’t she?”

“Sure, but I like hearing what you think, Lito.”

The two of them shared a strange look between them, and Ashe did a bad job hiding a smile as she watched whatever unspoken communication was going on.

Myria had made an offhand comment about Lito “kissing the wrong one” after our meeting with Umi-Doo, but I’d thought that was just a tease. After all, Ashe and Ember looked cosmetically similar, but their demeanors were strikingly different. Ashe spread herself out in what my mock-trial coach would have called power-poses and dominated her bench with open body language. She was also quick to joke and, from what little I’d seen, a smile wasn’t ever far from her lips. Ember stood stiffly upright and her comments and expressions were much more subdued. She’d even gone to lengths to disguise the fact that she had armor equipped, whereas Ashe wore it proudly.

I didn’t think he’d accidentally kissed Cole.

“We don’t know for certain, but most likely there will be a group of Delvers unaffiliated with any noble house,” said Lito. “We’ve gone up against a pair of level thirty golds, but can’t say for certain whether that’s the full depth of their talent pool. I find it unlikely they have anyone more powerful, especially since they were sending dregs like the Artemix group after Arlo, but there’s evidence that the group involved in this mess has been pulling strings at a major scale.”

“So there might be a powerful figurehead or leader,” said Ember.

“Possibly.”

“Worried we can’t handle an A-tier?” said Ashe.

“Oh, if it were just us we’d be fucked,” said Cole. “But with the Xor’Drels and the Ravvenblaqs, a single A-tier shouldn’t be an issue.” He shifted his weight, moving to a contrapposto stance. “Assuming the leader is just a single bossy A-tier that’s sent all their minions off and left themselves suicidally unguarded.”

“That’s the main thing that worries me,” said Ember.

“Our group will have very competent scouts,” said Lito. “If we recon and it looks like more than we can handle, we back off and send word to Umi-Doo. He can rally someone more suited.”

“Right now all the big boys and girls have better things to do,” said Myria. “But I’m sure they’d be happy to swing by if we find them a worthy playmate.”

Lito looked around the group, but no one else volunteered a question.

“If that’s everything,” said Lito, rolling up his map, “let’s get ourselves on a boat.”