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I LEFT NEWTOWN before sunup. Mee saw me off and wished me luck. Beyond that, I could see that the gremlin had something to say to me but couldn’t work up the courage. Even when I asked him directly, he opted to keep silent. I wonder what’s going on with him. When I get back, I’ll have to sit him down for a talk.
Before leaving, I reminded Mee not to try and be a hero no matter what. As soon as you smell fire, go straight into the portal to Foreston. An hour before this conversation, I had given the exact same instructions to Amber. I also reminded her that if I did not come back, they would have to leave Newtown and not worry about the whipsnakes. They would find me on their own and make sure I was not harmed.
I did not want to think such bad thoughts, though. On top of everything else, the city was just a measly three percent away from hitting level two. I think the process will be over before midday and Newtown will become even stronger.
When the city walls were hidden behind the trees, I activated avatar of chaos and canopy of invisibility. And with a dull roar, I darted off. Leveling my stats and skills had made me much stronger and faster. My run through the forest was accompanied by unforgettable sensations. It was as if I had escaped to freedom. The world had new sounds and smells to share with me. It stirred up within me something ancient and hidden away. Something very long forgotten.
Next to me, snarling happily amongst the trees, a lithe shadow flickered past. Gorgie was volunteering to accompany me to the Black Fang. The harn understood perfectly well what I was up to and was sincerely happy for me.
We reached the farthest pillar before sunup. Though I remember distinctly that the same walk took Farhas the troll shaman and I several hours.
We didn’t come across a single living soul whole way ― just silence punctuated only by the creaking of dead trees swaying in the breeze. I couldn’t sense any Dark creatures, either. Going off feel, all the creatures must have been near the portal. The Dark Spirit was getting ready for another attack.
“Hrn!”
“Yes, I remember this place, too,” I whispered quietly, looking around.
Beyond the tall pillar, which was coated in a thick layer of black moss, there towered a heap of old trees, stone and earth. On the tips of the especially poky branches, there hung animal skulls staring back at me with the mortal emptiness of hollow eye sockets.
The trolls called this heap the Boundary. It had been erected by their forebearers. It was their way of trying to keep their people safe. After all, despite the fact that the monster hunters had long since left the area, the magic traps were still functioning, killing anyone who dared try and cross into the large circle.
Now there’s no mana left in the traps, but hopefully our craftspeople will have the whole network back up and running very soon. Maybe they’ll even add something deadly of their own. Then Newtown will be very hard to conquer. This attack had been fended off only thanks to me and my pets. It would be nice if the foxfolk could handle a battle without us in the future.
Gorgie snorted and licked my cheek. Then looked me searchingly in the eyes.
“No, brother,” I rubbed his head. “This is my hunt. You have to go back and take care of everyone else.”
The harn just snorted again and nervous tapped his scaled tail on the ground.
“Go back,” I ignored his dismay. “And don’t even think of coming after me.”
Realizing it was futile to try and convince me, the harn licked me goodbye and disappeared among the trees.
I was left alone.
Overcoming the heap in two jumps, I headed toward the portal. I was wary to come at it head-on. I decided to make a big arc. My mission is to get up to the portal as stealthily as possible. The battle with the Blackblood Patriarch, then the standoff with the Dark Spirit had taught me a lot. Now I knew what to do.
When the first timid rays of the sun tried peeking through the dark fog, I walked out into the small clearing and froze stock-still. The sight unveiled before me sent a nasty chill running down my spine.
The clearing was completely littered with skeletons. Not long after that, my nose was struck with the smell of decay. Weird. Why didn’t I smell this earlier? Maybe the dark fog blocks smells, too?
Trying my best to breathe quietly, I slowly walked into the middle of the clearing. There I saw a particularly large pile of bones. Based on the size, they were troll skeletons. I counted around forty. The abandoned clubs and stone axes alongside the animal fang torcs some wore around their necks all fueled my theory that there was no one left to bury the fallen. That meant most likely every member of this large squad had perished. If any of them did make it out alive, they must have had bigger concerns than conducting a proper burial. I should get moving.
Looking carefully at the remains, I came to the conclusion that all the trolls were warriors. Based on their weaponry and torcs, the squad consisted of members of at least three or maybe even five tribes. Walking a circle around the battlefield, I realized there had been no survivors. None escaped with their life.
At first, I thought the trolls had gone up against the pack of bone hounds, but upon closer inspection, it became clear who really killed the forest giants. There hadn’t even been a proper battle...
It was the Dark Spirit. Only it could have shown up here without leaving a single track on the ground. Based on the positioning of the skeletons, the trolls had seemingly died before realizing what was killing them. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover the spirit fell on them here when they were making camp for the night. The heap of ash in the center of the meadow was clear evidence that most of the trolls had been next to the fire when they died.
That left me guessing as to what they were doing here. Why didn’t they go deeper into the Stone Forest? Why did they stay here and ignore my warnings? I after all recognized a few of the torcs. Narg’s squadron wore ones like that, the ones who stopped us before we left the Stone Forest.
At the time, Narg seemed sensible and intelligent. Had he really decided to stay in these lands and try to fend off otherworldly invaders with a combined army from several tribes? A very foolish choice.
But something wasn’t coming together. I left the Stone Forest many months ago. In that time, the dark portal should have gained power. The forest was probably teeming with creatures thirsting to be reborn in this world. It seemed unlikely the trolls could have held out as long as they did. After all, the bones in this meadow are relatively fresh. That means the mixed squadron came here recently. That makes me wonder what the Bug they were doing here. Doesn’t look like a scouting expedition. They were clearly on the war path.
I shook my head to drive off the unwelcome thoughts. It’s all in the past now. But I’m in the present. I have to think about something else.
Before leaving the meadow, I turned and whispered:
“Rest in peace, warriors. I’ll make sure you’re never forgotten.”
* * *
THE CLOSER I CAME TO the portal, the denser the darkness grew. Eventually, it got to a point where I had to fall back completely on magic vision.
My movement slowed. But not because I couldn’t see. No. The problem was something else. Thanks to my new spells, I now had an easy time surveying the “inner world” of the Darkness all around me.
As it turned out, the impenetrable sticky fog was nothing but a magic alarm network informing the “spider” sitting at the center of all goings on in the surrounding area.
I can’t really say why, but this alarm network had small gaps in it, and those who could see them could travel through the woods undetected with ease.
At first, I thought it was a trick by the Dark Spirit who had already long sensed my presence and was trying to lure me straight into a trap. But while hidden, I sat and observed for a bit before concluding it didn’t much look like a trap.
The gaps had formed all on their own. The cause was simple ― lack of energy. Bad Seed and Lazybones must have done much more damage to the Spirit than I thought.
After that came the failed attacks of the bone pack, which must have taken a lot of effort for the spirit to get together in the first place. Add to that the fact it was still amassing power for another attack, and you can see why it was overlooking the little gaps in the alarm network.
And I don’t really blame it. The “spiderweb” would warn it if a large warband or creature was coming. Anything little enough to slip through didn’t merit its attention.
I chuckled ravenously. I dare say this creep has no idea what “little thing” is slowly but surely making its way to his portal.
The closer I came, the harder it was to find gaps in the magic spiderweb. I praised myself yet again for not giving into Gorgie’s reasoning. He would not have been able to go unnoticed here. I even had to deactivate avatar with how narrow some of the gaps were.
In the end though I did make it. Once I reached the forest’s edge, I lied down in an old bush to check out what was going on near the portal. And there really was something to see. It sent whole squadrons of ants marching up my spine.
I wouldn’t say I was afraid. No. I felt no fear. But that wasn’t the issue. The portal smelled strongly of rot and vile otherworldly power. I had experienced something similar before in the Labyrinth of Fright while watching the attack on King Nidas’ palace. It felt like I was being turned inside out with disgust. But I handled it. I got a strong headache. I swallowed a mouthful of bitter saliva. I fought back nausea and a desire to run away and never look back.
After a bit of thought, I came to the conclusion that everything happening to me at the time was the effect of some otherworldly spell unknown even to the Great System. I guess if not for my high Will, I would have run away a lot earlier.
In the few months I was gone, the dark portal had changed to the point of unrecognizability. The Tree of Spirits, which was worshipped by the trolls and orcs had grown three times bigger. From the distance, it looked like a many-armed horror monster standing on its tiptoes and covered in a thick layer of black tar. The slime was flowing slowly to the ground forming a small coal-black lake around the tree.
It’s not really even a portal anymore. It’s a Dark Gateway now with gigantic slimy worms slowly but surely slithering through. The earth around them hissed and smoked.
I looked closer and shuddered. There wasn’t a single monster under level eighty. The system called them acid worms. After reading the creatures’ statistic and skill descriptions, I frowned. They’re slow, but very well armored. No magic. But they had one physical skill I particularly didn’t like. As if it wasn’t enough that the acid oozing out of their skin ate through everything in its path, the creatures could also spit the nasty substance around fifteen yards.
Just around the portal I counted up to thirty-five of the worms plus another few already slithering toward Newtown. The Dark Spirit seemed to have taken all its errors into account and realized the easiest way of storming our living city.
Speaking of the Spirit, there it is. Now it’s just a formless mass. Its body, as it turns out, is spectral. It reminds me most of all of a giant kraken. Just with way more tentacles. Long, limber and covered in spiny growths. They wriggle constantly. Some are touching the portal, others are wrapped around worms, and others still are directly attached to the threads of the alarm network.
While watching the spirit, I saw one of its tentacles twitch sharply and plunge into the black slime. And an instant later, it reappeared and went quickly toward the spirit’s bulbous head. At first, I didn’t realize what was happening, but then it hit me. The spirit had just pulled a creature of some kind from the portal and eaten it. Based on the flashes of lilac light emanating from his tentacles, the kraken’s victim was a magic creature.
As soon as the spirit swallowed its snack, I felt a fairly powerful energy upwelling. But I wasn’t the only one. The Heart of the Forest seeds were shivering in impatience. The upwelling had Bad Seed particularly feisty. I had a hard time settling it back down.
Out of the corner of my eye, I looked toward the giant kraken. I sighed with relief. Close call. It didn’t notice us.
I threatened Bad Seed that if it couldn’t settle down, it would never get a keeper then got started.
Crawling on my elbows, I moved forward. From gap to gap in the alarm network, at times making elaborate zigzags, I slowly made my way to the portal.
The giant kraken didn’t notice me. I had a malevolent smile on my face as I crawled. The ugly bastard had put too much stock into its alarm system.
A few times, its tentacles went racing past me. To avoid detection when that happened, I froze and stopped breathing.
A distance I could have overcome in just a few jumps on any other day took me more than two hours. And I was still far from my goal.
I had stopped and waited many times for a new gap to appear. Several times I lost my cool and lunged ahead but I forced myself to stop before it was too late. I cannot afford to take risks! There’s a lot riding on this!
And now, finally, a new tear appeared a pace away from me. I was about to move into it, but suddenly an acid worm emerged from the portal in the grip of a lithe tentacle.
The huge brute was as big as a wagon and just a few paces away from me.
I winced and rubbed my eyes. What a stench!
Pushed on by the kraken, the worm went crawling straight at me. To dodge would mean touching alarm threads. Dash forward? Won’t work. Too many worms around. And the spirit will react quickly. All my shields taken together were unlikely to stop this brute’s attack. I had to crawl back and pray to all the gods the worm would crawl to my right.
The gods must be on my side after all. By the time the worm stopped just five paces from me, and I was ready to activate avatar of chaos and all my shields, the giant tentacle suddenly wrapped around the worm’s slimy carcass and moved it a few yards to the right. Closer to the rest of the beasts. The kraken was clearly rushing its warband along. I was starting to get the impression it could sense something.
I then breathed a sigh of relief and closed my eyes for a moment. Close call... Thank the gods!
A few times I thought I had reached my target, but the fickle alarm system had its own agenda. There was one silver lining though: there were more and more gaps appearing all the time. The rush must have been draining a lot of the Spirit’s energy.
Once approximately twenty yards from the portal, I grabbed out a small bag. It was filled with large ghostly crystals I had picked out specially.
My plan was simple. One toss and the portal would be sealed. As soon as that happened, all the otherworldly beasts that had yet to acquire a new body would die. Sly Redtail once told me that was the first law of the monster hunters.
Should I perhaps just throw them now?
I raised my head and looked around. Just twenty yards. A bit far. But not for me.
That settles it! There’s no more sense in waiting.
I quickly stood to my full height. I cast a vengeful gaze at the giant spirt looming over the hideous Tree and wound up for a throw.
Whoosh! The leather bag packed to the brim with specially selected ghostly crystals flew in a wide arc toward the coal-black tar.
The giant kraken twitched abruptly. So, you do sense something, creep. His tentacles stopped everything else they were doing and reached for the flying bag. But they were too late. With a light splash, the crystals sunk into the portal.
I stood to my full height and smiled with satisfaction. My efforts were not in vain. I did it!
Ripples ran over the surface of the portal. A hiss burst from the kraken’s huge maw. Its body convulsed in tremors. Its tentacles started, chaotically cutting through the air. The giant acid worms froze in place for a moment then started turning my way with loud shrieks.
The satisfied smile gradually crept off my face. To be frank, I was not expecting this outcome. What is going on? Why is the portal still open?!
I quickly opened the system notification. I ran my eyes over the bright red lines and cursed out angrily.
I miscalculated! The bag of crystals I threw in was too small. I thought it would be more than enough... But it wasn’t... The portal was bigger than I assumed!
After dismissing the message, I glanced at the giant kraken. Dozens of tentacles were already racing toward me. The bodies of the worms puffed up, doubling in size. I was surrounded on all sides.
The spirit began to hiss in impatience.
“One time not enough for you?!” I barked, activating avatar and putting on all my available shields. “I’m gonna make you regret ever coming to MY world!”