Arc 04: Facing the Evil

Chapter 025: Mining with benefits

After we finished cleaning the conquered part of the Hold, the time came for another trip into the anomaly. We had to get stronger - we already lost a lot of time due to our sad meeting with Aberrant - and this was the only way. There were several options for us.

First, we could make a reconnaissance run into what remained of Ardent Flame headquarters. On one side we might have found a lot of interesting loot... but we risked another few days long pause because of collective insanity. Aberrants were a rare sight (at least they were a rare sight according to WR‘s lore) and there rarely were more than one in the same area, but... it was a nope. Mostly because most of our fighting force got a serious trauma about that place.

Second, we could return to Black Woods. However, this would be a yet another tiresome grind as because we weren‘t ready for a revisit in Third Anchoring Station. Forsaken alone would murder us all... though we wouldn‘t even reach it judging from the number of husks filling the earlier rooms. If each of them had a Seed of Nyrathzm... that was a major nope.

Third, we could make a trip to Descent. Which after a long debate was decided to be the best option. First, there were things to kill. Second, we didn’t go far last time so we would see new things much earlier (I want something interesting to happen, I’m bored!). Third, we could gather metals for our smith to use, even though getting her a proper forge would take a while.

“And how are we going to get it?” Lena seemed surprised. “I mean, it‘s all ore, right? You can‘t forge a sword from ore."

“Yes. But this is a mine, right?” I answered. “And what do you do in mine? You mine metals to produce things. So it can be done.” She and Simea looked at me like I lost my mind. Menara chuckled from the background. She knew what I meant.

“Ehm, I don‘t think it works like that." Lena didn‘t seem persuaded, while Simea looked like she was almost sure we were making fun of them and was waiting for the punchline.

“Listen, Dark is a world made from emotions, feelings and thoughts of the mortals, right?" Lena nodded. “Anomalies are places where there is enough Dark mixed with the Light that Reality works under at least some laws of the Unreality, right?” Lena nodded again. “Mines are always full of ores and you can take metals out, right?" She almost nodded again. Almost. She stopped halfway, deep thoughts written on her face.

Well, she wasn’t the smartest, quickest or most competent of us. But while she thought rather slowly, she in most cases reached the right conclusion.

“Wait, you mean... it works like that because people think about it like that?!" Both girls looked at me with shock. Yeah, well, the idea of reality reshaping itself according to social consensus was a weird thing. It took a while for people to understand what it meant on a practical level.

“There is a reason while nobody retook the mine despite thousands of years that passed since evil moved in.” Leria joined the talk. “It might have been once an iron mine, but now you can find everything there as long as you get deep enough and mana gets thick enough. Adventurers mined ten times more ore than there were in the mine before it collapsed into anomaly. And there are still tonnes waiting to be mined. "

“It would be different if the mine got exhausted before the collapse, but as people thought ‘a mineral-rich mine that got taken over by evil’ rather than ‘an exhausted mine that got taken over by evil…’ I shrugged. “Ambryxis paid adventurers to install aether-powered blast furnaces in the mine. While they drift together with the mine, as it keeps rearranging itself, this still means that people think there are aether-powered blast furnaces there.” I chuckled. I believed this mechanic was a chief reason DFI placed all their games in very similar universes. It allowed you to justify everything. As long as their creative team could think about it, so could inhabitants of the world they were creating. And if they could think of it, then even laws of physics could be regionally rearranged to allow it to exist, without accidentally breaking the mechanics of their world.

“What about economy?" Simea kept digging. “There is no inflation?”

Damn. That word brought back bad memories. “There is inflation, of course.” I answered, trying to avoid thinking about the hyperinflation that hit my country few years ago. “But there are still murderous things stalking people trying to dig out this never-ending treasure. With gods ensuring that there is no perpetual economy collapse by tailoring everything so that the threat level is as it should be. Prices rise and fall, but there is never a long term economy crisis unless something extreme were to happen.”

‘Gods did it' was second best idea of DFI, that made creating worlds rich in details much easier. If there were inconsistencies, all you had to do was shout “GODS DID IT” and everything made sense. In World‘s Requiem the Imperium of Kyradia never underwent a single bureaucratic reform since its inception thousands of years ago, always remaining exactly the same in terms of its internal structure... literally because GODS DID IT. They created it, and as they were omniscient and omnipotent, it had to be the best possible organization, right?

Sure, Demiurge Forge went easy there, avoiding many hard questions, but it still made their worlds have sense. They could create ten times bigger worlds without players getting lost in how they worked.. And they got rid of internal contradictions. They could even make retcons canon as time didn‘t chain gods and they could change past and future as well. A single piece moved on the chessboard of the Great Game could safely demote a part of the canon that didn‘t fit to something that occurred in the alternate timeline.

“So, the plan is simple.” I concluded the debate. “We descend into Descent, going as far as we can.” That was an unavoidable play on words. “While mining and smelting iron and other metals which we can then bring to increase our stash of resources to be used for future crafting. Also, it’s something we can sell to earn money for crafting equipment.” I also decided to find another target for our righteous crusade. Leria was getting anxious. I was using free time to read the Nexus wikipedia of Crimson Blades. I already had some interesting targets, most above our level. For now.

“You have something to add?” I ended in the tone that suggested that I planned to finish the talk. Simea raised her hand.

“How are we going to identify which rock carries ore?” …That was a valid question actually. My head turned to Kytar.

“No way!” He almost shouted. “I’m not going!”

***

“Hey, look at this differently. You’ll get to see the world.” I spoke to Kytar when we stood in front of the entrance to the Descent. He was carrying a pickaxe as his means of defense and work. Besides, Leria gave him a brief but spartan training that allowed him to cover himself with an ultrabasic level of Aura Armour. He was also a part of the group which meant that in case of death he would be resurrected back at the Hold. Despite this, he still looked like a prisoner awaiting execution.

“I don‘t like this. I hate this." It was his mantra. He kept speaking it repeatedly. “I thought you weren‘t going to take me anywhere I didn’t want to go."

Yeah, well, that part hurt me. When I heard it for the first time. Which was almost a day ago. It didn‘t work anymore.

“Listen, all I want you to do is show Lena how to dig stuff and show me how to identify ore-bearing rocks. At least until our own skills will show.” Mining and Mineralogy, if my memory served me well. I had neither of them in World‘s Requiem, so my knowledge about the geology of DFI’s universe was limited. “Then you are free to commit suicide to return to the Hold. And I swear to Overtyrant that we will never bring you out again without your consent."

Swearing to a god in DFI‘s worlds, especially to one so hateful towards oathbreakers, wasn‘t something you did on a whim. The god in question/game system always took note. Breaking it could be painful.

***

It turned out to be less scary than Kytar thought. Well, he remained behind me, who was behind Lena, who was behind Simea and Leria, so the threat to his life was almost nonexistent. Especially when our enemies were creatures like undead miners, legionnaires and velites. They would probably flee from Leria’s aura, but it was hard to flee quickly in a mine, as the caves naturally constricted their movements.

Simea went for velites, while Leria exterminated their fighters (starting from legionnaires, then moving on to miners). Lena made sure undead couldn’t interrupt me and Vaera raining death from the backline. It was a quite successful formation. Then again, most formations would be successful against enemies of this level. But it made slaughter efficient.

Kytar calmed down after a while. More or less. He still seemed frightened by the whole ordeal. Interesting. His fear seemed more like a trauma. I mean, he was immortal because of the Gore Altar‘s power. Despite this, he still almost jumped when new enemies showed up and he kept hiding behind me. More information for future note.

There was also progress in the main reason for our visit in the Descent.

"… yes, you see this dark red stone?” Kytar pointed towards the wall. I nodded. “Well, that‘s hematite. It‘s an iron ore.”

“I’m pretty sure that hematite looks different.” Simea commented from the background.

“Maybe in our world.” I shrugged. “They made it more unified. I mean, our hematite can be colored black to steel or silver-gray, brown to reddish brown, or red." I remember that much from the time I learned it for a test. But knowing a stone has such colour and identifying it properly were two different things, so…

NEW SKILL ACQUIRED

Mineralogy

Rarity: Common

Your proficiency in identifying stone layers and ore veins. Your Inspect skill can automatically detect valuable stones. On higher levels new options will be unlocked (for example ability to guess how big the ore vein is).

1

… I see.

“Alright, I got Mineralogy.” I announced. “Lena, hit the stone.”

“Yes, master.” She sighed. I wondered if she had gotten used to calling me that. She was yet to gain the Mining skill, so we had trained whenever there was an occasion. Staying too long in one place wasn‘t the best idea, especially when you used a pickaxe. Anomalies could get irritated and destroying matter that formed the anomaly could get it pissed off.

We already had a bit of ore collected. Not much, just a bit. We also passed by the blast furnace merely few minutes ago, but we decided to keep walking for a while, to gather more ore before staying there for a while to smelt things.

Jesus, I completely forgot to pick the person who was going to learn Smelting skill by operating the furnace. Uh. At least temporarily, since it was something that normally demanded being a focused specialist to master properly.

Lena raised her pickaxe and struck the ore vein in the wall, her strike empowered by the aura.

Seriously, the last fucking thing I expected was for the wall to strike back. Lena covered herself with Aura Armour a second before it hit her. The strike was still strong enough to send her flying.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

The ore vein exploded, with chunks and bits of stone flying around. I was in the safe distance from the explosion, together with Kytar, but the rest suffered glancing hits. Besides Simea, who dodged projectiles, once again proving that flexible bodies of night elves had certain benefits.

Something large emerged from the break in the stonewall. Something made from hematite rock, its chunks of varied shape assembled into vaguely humanoid form. Its head almost reached the ceiling, a meter above me. Even its eyes, two slightly glowing uneven balls, were made from rock. I heard a faint noise of stones rubbing against each other when it looked at me.

Hematite Golem

Category: Elemental/Earth

Type: Beast/Golem

Threat Grade: Silver I

A part of hematite vein that was possessed by an earth elemental. Its influence warped it overtime, changing it into a humanoid being, forever sleeping within the rock’s embrace. Woe to those that wake it.

OH FOR FUCK’S SAK…

I had a sudden idea. A flash of inspiration. It was going to be troublesome, but… everything in Gates of Eternity was troublesome.

“RUN, TOWARDS THE FURNACE!” I shouted. Kytar screamed in a decidedly unmanly fashion and ran. The rest followed without making so much noise.

***

The hall with the furnace was exactly how I remembered it. It was spacious, with the ceiling hanging three or four meters above our heads. There were no undead around since we dispatched them earlier and anomaly failed to remake them.

“What’s the plan?" Leria shouted when we ran inside, loud thumping from the background betraying that the Golem wasn‘t far behind us. He wasn‘t fast, so we avoided getting murdered en route with little trouble.

“Avoid getting killed and keep me alive. He’s vulnerable to Life Magic." I shouted back. I remembered as much from World’s Requiem.

We had little time to prepare before the Golem barged into the hall.

Damn. That’s a lot of stone to kill.

We were all already prepared in terms of defense, obviously. No way was I going to flee from an opponent without covering myself with Inhuman Resilience. So we needed little preparation before that fight.

Simea wasn‘t going to be of much use here as the Golem was invulnerable to both physical damage and Lust Magic. She also wasn’t resilient enough to play a tank here. A single close range AoE attack might wipe her out.

Lena and Leria couldn‘t do much to it as well, but they could at least tank and keep him busy. Lena‘s magic was next to useless, and so were all Overtyrant hexes. I mean, we were the one to strike him first, when all he was doing was having his well deserved, a thousand years long nap. No wonder we angered him. And since Overtyrant’s wasn‘t someone who would bother himself with a concept of disproportionate retribution…

The Golem stopped. He looked around the hall, planning what to do now that he caught us. A second later he was hit by Greater Life Tap, which stopped his pondering. The hex shaved off a small part of his lifebar and pissed him off even more.

He drove his hand into the stone beneath. This was so unexpected that I forgot to cast another Greater Life Tap. Then he pulled it back, ripping a solid chunk of rock from the floor, maybe a half meter wide.

Oh shit.

The projectile flew straight at me. I failed to use Localized Distortion in time, instead it overwhelmed Lesser Bend Reality and, weakened by it, hit me. Inhuman Resilience worked like a charm, so it didn‘t smash me into a bloody pulp. It only threw me back, with a bruise the size of my head on my chest.

Jesus, this will hurt tomorrow. Forget it, it hurts like hell already.

I raised up to see that the Golem moved to smash our tanks. He once again drove his hand into the ground, this time pulling out A TWO METER LONG BIG FUCKING CLUB. Jesus Christ, I never fought them in the World‘s Requiem, I only heard about ore golems and... I think they added few more tricks to their sleeve.

We are screeeewed.

Neither Leria nor Lena were stupid enough to block his club. Instead they were dancing around the golem, taking advantage of its rather slow movement. They couldn‘t do a thing to him, their weapons even coated in aura were no match for a stone armour. There wasn‘t even anything beneath it, the Golem was a living armour. Even if Lena‘s pierces nabbed him a little, the cost of regenerating the lost part was abysmal.

He didn‘t give a shit to the fact that his swings failed to connect. He was a rock. He was patient and inexhaustible. He simply had to swing his club at them long enough for them to get tired and then smash them into red pools on the ground.

Several Dragon Flare’s hit him, not doing a thing to his stone skin. Seriously, Vaera? I thought you were smarter than that.

“Simea!” I shouted, not knowing where our rogue was. “Take Kytar’s pickaxe. Lena, give your pickaxe to Leria. Target its joints!” Lena jumped back, away from the Golem‘s club range, throwing Leria her pickaxe. She wasn‘t going to cause much damage with it, but it would be at least SOME damage.

I fired another Greater Life Tap. And another. And another. Leria and Simea jumped around the Hematite Golem, using every opening to strike his joints and other thinner areas with pickaxes. Lena used her spear. It was even worse than their weapons, but she learned to use it to throw Golem off balance when he was preparing another devastating swing.

Damn it. I preferred golems in the games whose authors didn‘t think so deeply about how resilient a creature made of stone would actually be. And there were also METAL golems in the game. That could be made of EVERY SINGLE FUCKING METAL existing in the game. Including those so overpowered that every scientist on Earth would die due to several hour-long series of orgasms if they could get their hands on something so great.

50% of Golem HP. It raised its leg. Our tanks jumped back, sensing a change in its attack pattern. Then Golem stomped on the ground.

What followed was an earthquake. Small and localized, but definitely an earthquake. Plus a shockwave that would have stunned our warriors if they didn‘t play it safe. I could guess what would follow if they got immobilized even for a while.

Hmph. Too bad we couldn‘t see it fighting Devoured Knight. It might have been an interesting combat.

It returned to its pattern of rock club swings. It wasn‘t the sharpest tool in the shed. On the other hand, I could see that our warriors were exhausted and my mana pool was wearing thin with the long series of Greater Life Taps. I moved over to a combination of several Life Transfers before another Life Tap. I still lost mana, but I didn‘t lose it that fast.

I had to balance my mana spending. If I kept firing Greater Life Taps, I would make Golem‘s life fall faster, but I could run out of mana much faster. Using Life Transfers refilled my manapool, but the damage to the Golem was negligible. If I used them too much, I risked our warriors running out of stamina and getting squashed before the Golem falls.

Wonderful. Just freaking wonderful.

He was at 45% of HP when he drove his empty hand into ground. Oh fuck.

Another projectile, once again targeted at me. The Golem knew who was causing its pain. This time I dodged.

It didn‘t seem happy with my agility. It charged towards me, ignoring our warriors completely.

“Aaaaaa!" I screamed, fleeing. Wasn’t too brave, but it worked. I jumped away from his route a second before he trampled me. The Golem failed to stop and hit the stone wall with great strength, his HP falling down by 10%.

I evacuated to the other side of the room. Before I returned to casting Life and Death Magic hexes repeatedly. Our Warriors attacked him again, diverting his very limited intellect from me. He once again pulled a rock club from the ground (he lost the first one during his charge).

25% HP, 30% of mana. 20% HP, 26% of mana. 15% HP, 20% of mana. 10% of HP, 14% of mana. Suddenly he straightened itself and threw away his club.

I don‘t like it. I don‘t like it at all.

He drove both of his hands into the ground before pulling a massive chunk of rock. Jesus, it was at least one and a half meter wide, he barely managed to keep it despite his amazing strength.

Oh shit. I think I know what he is doing. “AREA OF EFFECT!" I screamed. Warriors immediately jumped back, reinforcing their Aura Armour as much as they could.

The rock ball exploded. Chunks of stone flew everywhere, together with stone shrapnels. I was almost fifteen meters from him and yet he my Lesser Bend Reality collapsed. Barely though, Localized Distortion and Inhuman Resilience stopped the rest of shrapnels.

Warriors had it worse. If not for my warning, they would be dead. Instead, they were just beaten up, their Aura Armours depleted by the rain of projectiles.

Hematite Golem

Category: Elemental/Earth

Type: Beast/Golem

Threat Grade: Silver I

A part of hematite vein that was possessed by an earth elemental. Its influence warped it overtime, changing it into a humanoid being, forever sleeping within the rock’s embrace. Woe to those that wake it.

Knows following spells and hexes:

Charge, Form Club, Form Projectile, Form Bomb, Shockwave

I appraised it again, out of curiosity. So there is no magic in the way he threw the projectiles at me? He used magic only in the process of creating them? Interesting, and probably exploitable.

Not now. “GREATER LIFE TAP!” I shouted again. The explosion damaged him as well, taking out 4% of the 10% of HP he had before. We were going to win this, even if our warriors looked like they survived melee combat with lawn mower. “LIFE TRANSFER! LIFE TRANSFER! LIFE TRANSFER!" He recoiled, the hits making him feel something now that he was almost dead.

Suddenly it crouched down... before launching itself towards the ceiling. His arm caught it, and it hanged there for a while. Wha…

Then he pulled out his left hand, making a part of the ceiling break away and fall, almost crushing Leria.

“HE IS TRYING TO CAUSE A CAVE IN!" Leria shouted.

Oh no, you don‘t.

“GREATER LIFE TAP!" I screamed from the top of my lungs. “GREATER LIFE TAP! GREATER LIFE TAP!" My mana fell down quickly, soon reaching zero. I disregarded it and continued.

Dizziness. Headache. Bleeding from nose. Window informing me that my Overdrain skill leveled up. I almost reached -10% of mana before I began vomiting.

Parts of the ceiling keep falling down. I was far enough, so that none hit me, but the others were busy trying to avoid changing into red stain on the ground.

The deed was done, one Greater Life Tap more... and its HP reached zero. It went limp and, after maybe a second or two, it fell down, crumbling into pieces after hitting the ground.

Shit. I almost collapsed on the ground as well, but Simea appeared beside me and helped me stand.

“I guess I should get used to avoiding death by a veeery thin margin, shouldn’t I?” She said grinning widely. Yeah, nothing better than a feeling of happiness and accomplishment after felling a powerful enemy. “What now?”

I chuckled. “Golem was made of iron ore. He was... rather heavy. And it was nice of him to carry itself into the furnace room. Why do you even ask?" Her eyes widened. Well, it was a good idea to make him follow us here. It made logistics easier. And we even (somehow) avoided having the furnace demolished during the battle! Nice.

***

We had Lena deal with smelting ore. Our ‘guild' still required a specialized craftsman to do smelting back at base, since making alloys (especially high levelled ones) was... complicated. It wasn‘t something you could do in the field. But having one of our members know the basics (enough to smelt ore or metal junk we collected) would be essential. There were even portable, magic powered smelters around.

The blast furnace we used wasn‘t portable, but was magic powered. It worked on a basis of magical perpetuum mobile, like the brainwashing station in the Hold. Ambient magic powered it, making it possible for the furnace to work indefinitely. Such installations were much cheaper and simpler in magical anomalies, due to how much of the ambient aether there was. Aether was a bit like radiation, a bit like gas and a bit like liquid... or all of them simultaneously.

You didn‘t have to anchor complex arrays of spells to draw power from outside. Potential difference did it for you. You just had to make sure power is stored and purified before using. Raw aether was cancer. Sometimes literally.

After maybe twenty minutes of figuring out the controls, Lena succeeded. Molten metal flowed through the faucet right into the cast. She pulled another lever and conjured water fell on it, quickly lowering the temperature and making the metal solidify.

I appraised it.

Golem Iron [Bar]

Metal

Third Grade

Golem Iron is a common name for a metal created from smelting ore that used to be a part of a Golem. His influence altered it, increasing its mana conductivity. The rest of its properties remains unchanged on the level of basic iron.

Pretty neat. I already had an idea for things Menara should do with it… of course after we buy her smithing tools.