After several fruitless hours, I gave up on sleep. Before I got up for the day, I noticed a notification that I hadn’t addressed yet.

New skill acquired

Imbue

Beginner level 4

Similar to charging a weapon with mana, you have managed to charge a weapon with a skill. Effects will vary based upon your imbue skill level, mastery of the skill you wish to imbue, and type of weapon.

Mana cost: 5x imbued skill cost, 5% item durability

Duration: 5 minutes

Cooldown: 1 second

Limitations: maximum 10 weapons

One imbued spell per weapon

Not a bad skill, though there was already a major loophole in their description of it. Sighing, I started writing out an email to Emily so that they could address the issue.

Emily,

Two issues I have come across recently that should be addressed. First is the Imbue skill. There needs to be a limitation to it when it comes to attack spells. As it is, I could imbue my weapon with Reality Slash, and absolutely destroy anyone I came across. I suggest limiting attack spells to imbuing only elemental effects, so Reality Slash and Dark Bolt would both only imbue shadow damage. You might make it so that the stronger spell will impart more damage, but that’s up to you guys.

The other issue is with one of my new legendary spells, Deo Noct. I used it on a NPC, and it terrified him. I’m mostly worried about the total sensory deprivation, as even a small time spent under that could be terrifying. Would it be possible to give targets a window explaining what is going on, along with a timer counting down their time left? That would give them an anchor and hopefully prevent panic.

Thanks,

Marty

“I’m gonna hate myself for not using five minutes of reality slash in battle, but it’s probably better this way.” I muttered before steeling myself to remove Inkler’s head from my stomach. He opened one eye to glare at me when I was futilely pushing against his head, before blowing a blast of air in my face and letting me get up. “Ya know, my parents had an entitled cat like you when I was growing up. I used to threaten to turn him into a pair of mittens, but your armor wouldn’t make a very good pair. I suppose I could always turn you into some scale mail. Would you like that?” He stared at me for a second, before walking around me and claiming my entire bedroll as his own. “Seriously, at least keep your tail off my damn pillow.” I muttered, picking up the pillow and placing it into my inventory.

Once out of the tent, I stretched until I felt a glorious string of pops run up my back. I knew it did absolutely nothing for me, popping my back in a digital body, but the attention to some of the little things really helped set this game apart. I couldn’t help but smile as I walked over to the cooking fire. “Got anything good for breakfast?” I asked the guard who had drawn the short straw for cooking.

“Sorry sir, trail rations only. The priestess is concerned that the smell might attract something from Mistcrystal Caverns, and they would be enraged at this time of day.”

“No worries.” I said, taking the offered rations. “I’ll not be complaining about sensible precautions that keep me and others alive.” He smiled at that, though I caught a lot of tension leave his body. “So, are there any portions of the trip today that are going to be an issue?”

“Not particularly. The closer we get to the city, the less chance of meeting something unpleasant. Most of the really bad stuff tends to be deeper in the ground. Don’t worry though. Even if we run into something we can’t handle, the guards will hold it off while you and the priestess make it back to the city.”

“I appreciate that.” I said, knowing that any other reply would be met with hostility. “By the way, were you one of the ones whose weapons I imbued last night?”

“No, I was positioned away from the action. Any reason?”

“Yeah, I used a new skill and wasn’t aware of some of the consequences. Can you let the guards know that their weapons lost 5% durability? I would hate to have my actions cause one of their weapons to fail in combat.”

“I can do that, and thank you on their behalf. Before any excursion we have to make sure durability is maxed, so it shouldn’t be an issue. But if they have to face extended combat it’s always good to know your equipment’s status.” After that, we dropped into a relaxing silence and let the camp slowly wake up. I saw the guard pull a few people off to the side for a quick conversation, and assumed that he was passing on word about the durability issue.

“I loathe trail rations.” The priestess muttered as she plopped down next to me. “Almost as much as I hate mornings.”

“You would think that people could make something at least taste decent, but that would probably make them last a few weeks shy of forever, and we couldn’t have that.”

“Ha! Caaah!” My quip came right as the priestess took a bite, and her laughter quickly changed to a fit of coughing as she inhaled a bit of the ration. After a few tense seconds that felt like minutes, she managed to regain control. “Don’t do that while I’m eating!”

“Sorry, couldn’t help myself. You ok?”

“I’ll be fine.” She said after a long draw on her flask. “You almost ready to go? We should be on the road in ten minutes or so.”

“Sure.” I answered, getting up to make sure my tent was packed and Inkler was fed. He gave me the stink eye for a bit, but when it became obvious that the trail rations were all he was getting, he ate them.

“Need any help sir?” The guard from earlier asked as he walked up.

“I’m good, thanks. Did you pass on the word?”

“I did, and the guards all know as well in case we need it for the future.” Nodding in acknowledgement, I watched as he trotted away to help others in packing up the last bits of camp. By the time I had turned back, Inkler had jumped into his spot on the spider and was already getting himself comfortable. Taking one last look around, I too loaded up onto the spider and strapped in my legs. Less than five minutes later, and the convoy was on the move once again.

We followed the river through a series of caverns and tunnels for another hour or so, and I was glad the trip was boring. The scenery didn’t change much, and everyone was more than happy to travel in silence. The most noise we heard was the occasional sound of battle from up ahead, but it was always over swiftly and none of the guards even looked winded when they switched out with other scouts. We kept moving through the cave system, and everyone seemed just a little bit nervous after abandoning the river. I chalked it up to the silence, as the dark seemed a bit more oppressive without the sounds of moving water coming from nearby. After another hour of travel, we came to a vast chasm with no way across.

“Five minute break to stretch!” The priestess called, and almost everyone sighed in relief to be unclasping from the leg restraints. When I jumped down to get the blood flowing again, I almost dropped to the ground as one of my legs gave out.

“Got one of your fasteners a little too tight there, sir, but that’s a better mistake than a little too loose. Especially considering our next bit.”

“Oh? And what is our next bit of travel? I see that the cave system ends here at the cliffs.”

“We travel along the cliff face for a few miles, then we cross the chasm to a lower cave system.”

“I see. I’ll make doubly sure that my restraints are up to par.” I said, not relishing what would happen if I fell out of the saddle. “How long is the drop?”

“We aren’t sure. The farthest anyone has traveled is one mile. They started seeing signs of dangerous creatures, and smartly chose to head back.” I gave him a raised eyebrow look, and he kept explaining. “Something strong enough to smash out bits of the wall, and whatever it was fighting had claws that could dig through stone. It looked like some areas were melted, so either strong magic or equally strong acid.”

“Yeah, sounds like they made a good call. I don’t suppose we will be using a bridge to reach this lower cave system?”

“Not at all.” He said with a smile. “Don’t worry, we will make a temporary bridge with spider silk. Those almost never fail.”

“Had to say it. He had to fucking say it.” I muttered while shaking my head. “Y’all don’t believe in jinxing yourselves, do you?”

“Of course not sir. We drow make our own luck, and it always turns in our favor. Oh, looks like the priestess is ready to go. Take care.” He said, and moved off to secure himself to his mount. I glared for only a second before turning to do the same. It wouldn’t do to keep the priestess waiting.

Once again we started moving, this time half the scouts were sent ahead while the rest move behind the convoy. It felt odd, to be moving so smoothly along the side of a cliff. If it weren’t for the pull of gravity, I really wouldn’t know that we were sideways. The sounds of battle stopped, as nothing really lived on the edges of the cliffs. The scouts would mark openings, and we gave them all a wide berth. The slight tapping of spider's legs were the only noise around. This leg of our trip only took a half an hour, before I noticed that the scouts were travelling back and forth through the chasm. They would fire several strands of silk, before climbing across and thickening the strands as they went. It was a thing of beauty, watching the spiders rapidly work together to build a bridge. The end result was two thick strands held together by a multitude of crisscrossing smaller strands.

The first person to cross was the priestess, her spider expertly moving across the bridge and barely causing it to sway. Several others passed as well, with no issues whatsoever. I was one of the last to go, and my spider moved slightly slower across the gap. Halfway across, and I was cursing the fucking guard who had to make the comment about the bridges stability. From out of the depths, a group of panicked cave bats came shooting up. Their wings and closeness to the bridge were causing it to buck about like this were the Tacoma Narrows, and I wasn’t thrilled with the ride. Especially when I noticed the strands to my right starting to come unraveled.

“Move to the left strand, NOW!” I screamed at the spider, and thank all the gods that were paying attention that it actually listened. As soon as the spider switched, the right strand snapped, and we swung around to hang upside down. The last of the bats fluttered past, and in the silence I tried to calm my racing heart. Not an easy thing to do when you are hanging by a string, upside down, over an endless chasm. As I was looking down, I noticed something roiling in the darkness. Unable to make it out, I was nonetheless terrified.

“I don’t know if you understand me, but there’s something down there.” I muttered to the spider. “As soon as I fire off a distraction, you need to double time it across this bridge, understand?” The spider froze with one leg in the air, and I saw it twitching in anticipation. “[Magelight].” I said, firing off an orb of light out into the chasm. As soon as the light was away, the spider took off like the there was a horde of demons on its tail. The arch of the orb was intercepted by a black tendril, which easily swallowed the orb before falling back into the darkness below. I felt a discordant bump on our journey, turning back to see a similar tendril slashing through the webbing where I had originally fired the light.

“Jump! JUMP OR WE DIE!” I screamed, and the spider obeyed without question. Launching itself with the last of the tension on the webbing, we crossed the last bit of the gap to slam into the wall of the cliff. Scrambling in panic, we managed to enter the tunnel just as several other tentacles started waving through the air where we were. Not looking back, the spider scurried forward into the tunnel past the pale faces of the drow who had already made the trip across.

“Make. Your. Own. Luck. My. Ass.” I panted as I glared at the guard. Flinching, he at least looked slightly ashamed for a second.

“Well, this was unexpected. Hopefully the rest of the convoy is smart enough to retreat, but we must move on. There are still several hours to go until we are safe, and we are not camping out again.” The priestess took charge, her calm orders shaking the drow out of their fearful paralysis. “When we reach the city, we will send back an armed company to search for survivors. Now move!” Several scouts took off down the tunnel, and we moved after them in a swift but safe manner. Anything to get some distance between whatever lived in the chasm and us, as I noticed some of those tentacles were thin enough to snake their way down a tunnel. Without seeing enough of the creature to get an identification, we had no idea how big it was.

“I don’t know what spider’s get as a treat, but I’m paying for you to get at least a week’s worth when we get back to the city.” I said as I patted the side of the spider’s head. There was no doubt that I had escaped by the skin of my teeth, and it was all due to the spider’s quick reactions.