Chapter 29

Buff

There seemed to be no end to the grapplers. Some were larger. Some were slower. Each one of them were equally hard to defeat. We often had to take breaks for our ancienne’s and warrior to recoup strength and energy. During those breaks, we sat in the dim light of Elder Azure Mana Totems in order to save the precious few torches that remained.

The dungeon tunnel continued on, smelling of deep fresh earth. We’d gone through another twenty grapplers by the time we had to stop and consider sleeping for the night.

“At least we’ve got a pretty good system going for now,” Pelle said.

We passed around some bread and aged cheese to share. The soft blue light of the totems was enough that we could see each other’s faces. The light glinted off our eyes which added an eerie quality.

“As long as I don’t mess up, we could continue this for the rest of the dungeon,” Robern said.

“I can’t wait for this dungeon chain to end,” Filo said. “I miss being outside. We’ve spent too many days down here.”

“Do we have anything else besides cheese and bread?” Vynk said. “Bread, bread, bread. That’s all we seem to eat.”

“We had some fish the other day,” Lep said. “I thought that was pretty good. Couple of fruits too.”

“I’ve got a level 1 Conjure Breakfast Scroll,” I said. “I haven’t had to use it because we’ve always had fresher food on hand than what I imagine a level one spell could conjure.”

“You've been holding out on us, healer!” Vynk said.

“Put it in your spellbook,” Pelle said. “That way you could always level it up and always have food available if you need it.”

“Why don’t you try it when we wake up?” Arris said. “I’m siding with Vynk on this one. I’m getting tired of bread.”

“See?” Vynk said. “I say let’s try it.”

We took turns guarding the party throughout what we guessed was night time. My watch was the first this time, which I found to be the best. It barely felt as though I’d slept when I was roused by Pelle.

“Hey. Hey Tosin. Let’s get up. Arris let us oversleep a little bit.”

It took me a few minutes to get my bearings straight. New mana totems sparkled blue and we huddled around them and exchanged “good mornings.”

“So…” Vynk said. “How about that breakfast?”

“Oh, right,” I said.

I rummaged around my inventory pouch for the breakfast scroll and my spellbook. Crystals had grown all over it. It was sharp, heavy, and awkward to hold. I carefully opened the book and flipped to the very last blank page.

“YOu’re going to put the breakfast scroll in there?” Pelle said.

“Yea, away from the other spells.”

I lay the scroll upon the last page and it fused into the book with a brief lightshow of silver and white. Conjure breakfast had a brief description with a cost of five mana. ‘Conjures a breakfast,’ it read.

“Alright,” I said. “Let’s see what this does.”

I spent the five mana and the rune on the spell glowed orange.

The same glow of orange was manifesting in the air before me. We were all looking on in earnest. Vynk was almost drooling in anticipation.

The glow flashed and went out. In its place was a single cracked egg. Egg white began seeping through the cracks and dripping down the side and onto the ground.

“Eww,” Filo said. “Oh no. No, no, no. Gross.”

Vynk gave a great sigh and rubbed his face. “Well, bread is ok then,” he said.

Lep snatched the egg before it fell and stepped away from the group. He activated a torch and said, “I’m going to try and cook it at least. It would be a shame to waste it.”

“That’s a lousy spell,” Arris said.

“Try leveling it,” Pelle said. “You’ll probably get a better breakfast that way. We all know you've got the mana to spare for it.”

While everyone prepared for the day, I spent a couple of hours absorbing as much mana as I could from the spellbook. I couldn’t do it all in one sitting because it would have taken too long. I thought about breaking the crystals off, but Samantan and Antoine had made me wary of doing that.

I’ll have to find someone who might be able to help me with that. I don’t always have the time to sit there and absorb crystals. I’ll ask Garmar when we finish this dungeon chain. He’s usually quite helpful. If not, I could always ask Meeloe. If he remembers me…

Before we continued, Vynk was pleading with me to level up the spell and see if I could conjure a better breakfast. I caved since I was also curious and leveled the spell up to level ten.

The mana cost increased to twenty mana points, but it turned out to be well worth it. The first time I cast it after leveling up, earned me a slice of barely toasted toast.

“Oh no,” Vynk said, “not more bread…”

I cast the spell six more times and earned a different breakfast each time. Fresh fruit, sausage, porridge, pancake, another egg, and a small handful of nuts. We learned quickly that nothing was conjured in a bowl or container. Nothing was hot, in fact, everything was warm at best. A couple of us had either bowls or containers to catch the more liquid breakfast items.

“The spell has potential,” Lep said after slurping down his porridge. “I’m curious to see what happens when you really start to level that spell up. Imagine if you could get a full hot breakfast every time.”

Breakfast wasn’t anything special, but at least it was nice to switch it up. It wasn’t cold either, so that was a bonus.

Refreshed and rested, we followed Robern’s lead deeper into the dungeon. Most of the morning was spent alternating between battling the grapplers and moving forward. Then we got to a large round door. It filled the whole tunnel. The entire thing was made with large beams that I guessed had been reclaimed from something else. The wood was soaked with oil. Black iron brackets held the panels and beams in place. To the right side of the door, against the wall, was a monolith.

“There’s no way through,” Robern said after inspecting the door from wall to wall. “I can’t figure out how it works.”

“It’s got to have something to do with the monolith,” Arris said.

Arris placed a hand on the smooth cut surface of the monolith. A low hum came from the structure and Arris yanked his hand back. His fingers glowed a bright brown and swirls of colored dust began flying around his hand. Then the light dimmed and went out.

“What was that? What just happened to me?” Arris said.

“Do you feel any different?” Pelle said, grabbing Arris’s hand and taking a look at his palm.

“A little bit. I feel more awake. Stronger?”

Pelle cast her mana bar and inspected Arri’s health bar. There was a brown symbol above his health bar. The symbol was the shape of a flexing arm and it vibrated every few seconds. Above it was a time stamp that was slowly decreasing.

11 hours. 59 minutes.

“I’m not familiar with the affliction,” Pelle said.

“Touch the door,” Robern said. “Maybe it’s a key or something.”

Arris put his hand on the door. The wood creaked beneath his palm. Silence followed. Then the whole door exploded outward with thundering cracks of splitting wood.

“Holy Felke,” Arris said after all the dust had settled. “Maybe it’s not an affliction. Looks more like a buff!”