Winds of Magic Chapter 14

 

Chapter 14

I woke up to the sound of something shattering. Throwing off my covers, I got dressed in order to investigate. I walked through my house until I came to the source of the sound. Rei was in her backyard, adjacent to mine, and was practicing her destructive magic.

“Up this late?” I said, walking through the gate that separated our backyards.

“Same to you,” said Rei.

“I just woke up,” I said. “You training?”

“I am,” said Rei. “I want to be the best. I’m going to get onto the team as a starter as soon as possible.”

“Don’t bother the neighbors,” I said.

“I won’t,” said Rei.

I typed a few things into my casting device. It took about two minutes to charge and then threw up a sound proof barrier surrounding the backyard.

“Now you can work in peace,” I said. I sat down in a lawn chair and took a breath of the fine night time air. I watched Rei crack pillars of ice for over an hour and then returned to bed, leaving her to her training.

I needed my sleep, anyways. I had a lot of work to do the next day.

When I woke up it was light outside, but my alarm clock had not gone off yet. I got out of bed and checked the backyard. Rei wasn’t there. I went over to her front door and knocked. Rei appeared after a few minutes and let me in.

I donned an apron. “My turn,” I said. I put together a breakfast of over easy eggs, hash brown, and pancakes. Rei and I had a deal. When both of our sets of parents were gone, I cooked one meal and she cooked the next, switching between us. It was an arrangement that suited us.

When we were done we got ready for school and headed to campus. The walkways were sparsely populated, as the first classes of the day had not yet started. We both went to the curling clubhouse beneath Battle Tower. Rei split to go to the team’s room while I arrived in the auxiliary clubhouse. I was the last of the members to arrive.

“Right on time,” said Alice. “Have you figured out how to decode the book I gave you?”

“I haven’t started,” I said. “If you don’t mind I’d like to start now. I’m sure you don’t really need my help elsewhere.”

“Go ahead,” said Alice. I took the book from my backpack and placed it on a table in the corner. “I think this book is a grimoire.”

“Well, that’s not surprising, is it?” said Alice. “How can you tell?”

“Instinct,” I said. “I’ve dealt with grimoires before.”

“Wow,” said Alice. “I wouldn’t have expected. Did you see them in your line of work?”

“Of course,” I said. I opened the book on the table. The spine cracked as I moved it. The pages were not made of paper but of parchment, which had survived the years a lot better than paper would have.

“When is this book from?” I asked.

“I have no idea,” said Alice. “I tried looking it up online but couldn’t find anything. There are also no identifiers inside that would tell us when it was written.”

“I think it’s a recent book,” I said.

“Even though it’s been written on parchment?” said Alice.

“Exactly,” I said. “This parchment doesn’t look like it was made during the preindustrial era.”

“How can you tell?” said Alice.

“There’s one way to find out,” I said. I took out my casting device. “This may take a while,” I said. I loaded a program for carbon dating using magic. It took about fifteen minutes, and another half hour for the analysis to complete. In the meantime I assisted with the small day to day tasks of running a curling team.

When the analysis was done, I checked it. As I has suspected, the book was only fifty years old. For a grimoire, it was super young. Most grimoires that were worth anything had been written several hundred years ago. But something told me that this book held a secret that would change a lot of things. Creating a single crystal superalloy not protected by governments would upend the market.

And that’s exactly what I planned on doing. I flipped through the pages, trying my best to analyze the jargon. When I had finished my inspection I put together a serum described in the book’s first chapter. It was easy enough to create with the materials we had in the clubhouse—it was a workshop dedicated to materials science, after all.

I had a precursor to a superalloy in a jar in my hands. It bubbled with a thick green viscousness that made it seem magical. Well, it was magical. I placed the vial down. The grimoire snapped shut with a surprising clap. I tried prying it back open, but couldn’t.

“Maybe we triggered a trap?” said Alice. She tried opening it as well but to no avail.

“I don’t know,” I said. I slid the book back into my backpack. “This is the second object I’ve found that has locked itself.”

“Second?” said Alice.

“I was going to ask,” I said. “Have you ever played a magic VR game?”

“Yeah, a couple of them,” said Alice. “My brother is really into that kind of thing.”

“This may sound funny,” I said, “But are you willing to risk your life for a friend?”

“Of course,” said Alice. “Why are you asking?”

“Because I found a manifested dungeon where you die for real when you lose.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of those,” said Alice. “Though I never thought you would be the one to find me one.”

“Are you in?” I said. “You may die. I can’t understate that fact.”

“What’s the reward?” asked Alice.

“Eden,” I said. “Or at least information about it.”

“I’ve heard rumors about that,” said Alice. “It’s something a bunch of crackpots are trying to do to the world. Like the rapture.”

“Yeah, that,” I said. “If you can help me, we can figure out what’s going on.”

“I’m in,” said Alice. “My life has been pretty boring as of late. I can do with some excitement. Until the tournament gets close, of course. Then I’ll have to double down.” She looked at the rest of the club members. “We’re going out for a while. Keep working on the second layer granite construct.”

Alice and I walked out of the room. Alice had her hands in her pockets. “Adventure is kind of sexy,” she said. She chuckled. “Anyone else joining us?”

“Yeah, hopefully,” I said. I took out my phone and texted Rei.

“Bring Jade and Tetra to the cafeteria as soon as you can.”

“Be there in ten minutes,” said Rei.

Alice and I arrived in the cafeteria and sat down at one of the larger tables. Since it wasn’t meal time, the room was pretty empty.

“Tell me more about this dungeon,” said Alice, leaning forward on her palms.

“Well, it appears that whoever designed it didn’t want to hide information so much as gatekeep it. I can’t think of any other situation where they would allow random people access to their files without breaking the encryption.”

“If my hunch is correct,” said Alice, “I would think that whoever designed the dungeon system wanted to find good fighters and magicians.”

“I think so too,” I said. “I think they’re testing people to see if they are worthy of receiving whatever is inside that flash drive.”

Rei came through the door with Jade and Tetra. “I’m here,” she said, sitting down across from me. Jade and Tetra also sat down.

“What’s the story?” said Rei.

“We’re going to try beating a VR dungeon crawler that protects the flash drive I found underneath that lake. I believe it will lead us to Tally and what those cultists are trying to do.” I paused. “And the kicker is that if we die in the game we will die in real life.”

“Yikes,” said Rei. “But if it leads to us finding and freeing Tally, then it would be worth it. Jade? Tetra? What do you think?”

“I’m with you,” said Tetra. “But besides that, I’m starving, and my cook has taken the day off. Do you mind if I get something to eat? I will treat you all as well.”

We grabbed a meal and returned to our seats. I chose sushi and Rei picked a sandwich that was pre-wrapped. Tetra ate daintily with her hand in front of her lips. “Tally is my friend, as well as Jades,” she said. “I will do anything to return her to us and her family. She has been missing for far too long.” She took a bite of her pasta. “And I do not want her to be sacrificed to an ancient bloodthirsty god. Who knows what will happen to her soul if she is consumed in a ritual like that?”

“We’ll get to her before that happens,” I said. I looked at Rei and she nodded. “We’re in this together.” I looked at Alice. “Oh, and I don’t believe I have introduced you to Alice yet.”

Alice waved. “Hi. I’m the vice captain of the curling auxiliary corps.”

“Jade,” said Jade.

“Tetra Pearlash, at your service,” said Tetra.

“It’s nice to meet you,” said Alice. “I thank you for being York’s friends.”

“No need for thanks,” said Tetra. “York is a very easy guy to be around.”

Rei finished her food. “I think we should go there now,” she said. “We’re all free for the next hour or so. Can you tell us more about how we are supposed to fight in this dungeon?”

“Sure,” I said. “Apparently you’re given a class and weapons just like in a traditional virtual RPG. You can even level up. Some of the monsters are pretty scary though. The smell especially.”

“It’s all to save Tally,” said Tetra. “Jade?”

“I’ll help as much as I can,” said Jade. “I don’t know how much use I will be, though.”

“Aw, don’t be modest,” said Tetra. “Even as a Second your skills are invaluable.”

“Thanks,” said Jade.

I looked around at the party. “Are we ready to go?” I said.

“Then let’s go,” said Alice.

We traveled to the computer lab and I hooked up the flash drive. In an explosion of light all five of us were transported to the same starting room I had been taken to yesterday. There were two doors this time, and one of them had “level 2” written on it.

“This way,” I said.

“Wait, let me choose my class,” said Rei.

I waited as the party chose their weapons and their class. When they were done I approached the door leading to the second level. We entered and came onto a volcanic plateau that stretched far into the distance. Kangaroo-like monsters wandered back and forth across the scorched landscape. I held up a hand. “Since you guys are lower level than I am, maybe we should do some grinding.”

“Exactly what I was thinking,” said Rei.

Grinding, in a situation where levels were important, was the method of beating lots of small monsters to gain experience points from them before fighting the big bad guys. This allowed one to have a leg up on the boss monsters when they did arrive.

We decided to kill at least a dozen of the kangaroo monsters before we attempted to head deeper into the dungeon. I leveled up twice during the process. It was difficult to face the kangaroo monsters as if it were real life, but I couldn’t die now, facing off against mooks who didn’t even have names.

We killed about two dozen of the creatures and, when I deemed that we were ready, we headed deeper into the dungeon proper.

Winds of Magic Chapter 13

 

Chapter 13

I had heard of environments like this before. Magically powered, they existed as an extension of the real world. I had even heard of environments like this being used for a virtual reality experience. But I had never heard of something like this being used as a password to unlock a file.

I had in my hands a single iron sword, no armor. I was in my street clothes. In the distance I could sense beings of immense power. This “game” was nothing to snuff at. I could really die if I wasn’t careful.

I followed a small path out of the main gate and headed towards the center of the new world. Whatever was out there, I had to overcome it in order to get where I wanted to go. The file hidden behind this booby trap was most likely worth the effort. Whoever had hidden it here had meant for it to be found.

I stopped. A magical presence made itself known to me, behind a bush to my side. I turned to face it and brandished my sword. The bushes shifted. A small rabbit bounced out from behind them. It looked harmless enough, but I had to be careful. I approached it.

“Hey, friend,” I said.

The rabbit opened its mouth and a gigantic row of teeth peeled out from under its lips. It charged me. The thing smelled of rotten flesh and dead offal.

Unable to cast a magic spell fast enough, I hacked in the general direction of the rabbit monster. My sword made contact and split the rabbit in two. Gore splattered me. The smell worsened.

A trumpet sounded and a blaze of light surrounded me. I was lifted up into the sky and a bright wall surrounded me.

“You have leveled up,” said the voice of a woman. A menu appeared in front of me. It showed a variety of standard RPG stats. I chose to put all my level up points into the magic ability “fire blast.” When I extended my hand a spiral of fire spewed out from my palm and rotated through the air.

“Cool,” I said. I held my hand out again and fired off a ball of flame. A singed spot was left on the wall.

Another prompt appeared in front of me and I touched it. The game returned me to the place where I had killed the rabbit. There was no sign of its remains or of the blood that had spurted out of it.

I shook my head and continued along the path. After about a hundred feet three rabbits stood in the middle of the road. Having seen the previous one, I was expecting the worst.

“Come at me,” I said, swinging my sword through the air.

The three rabbits charged. I slashed one in half as it passed me, but the second rammed straight into my chest. Its enveloping teeth spread out over my neck. I wrestled with it, pinning it against the ground.

The rabbit’s teeth came scarily close to my neck. Its drool dripped onto my skin, smelling of terrible maggot-ridden flesh. “Fireball!” I said, casting the spell I had just learned. The rabbit lit up with yellow flame and tumbled away, screeching. The third rabbit backed away from me, eyeing me with its beady little red dot eyes. It grimaced, showing a bit of those nasty teeth, and then turned to run away.

I crept forward, waiting for an ambush, but there was none. I was able to travel along the path for quite a bit before I came to a clearing. On the far end, a gigantic goat was sitting on a wooden throne. It stood up, its feet shaking the ground as it moved. In its hands it held a double-handed battle axe the size of a car. Was I really supposed to face this guy alone?

The goat monster approached me, swinging its axe side to side. I backed away.

“Firebolt!” I yelled, casting the spell. The ball shot toward the goat monster and fizzled against its fur.

Maybe I wasn’t supposed to defeat this thing. Maybe I was supposed to run past it.

I got ready to sprint. With a huge burst of speed, I ran directly towards the monster. The monster slammed its axe into the ground a second past the moment I was there. Dirt splattered everywhere. I rolled between its legs and sprinted for the door next to the throne. I then slammed into it, breaking it down and leaving the battle area.

I walked into an empty room. An angel with a halo of light sat on a tree stump. Her hair was long and crimson, and she wore a beautiful white dress.

“I see you have made it,” said the angel. “Brave hero, I will now unlock the first layer of the Elysian Box.”

“Elysian?” I said, and then I was sitting in the library in front of the lab computer. On the screen was a text fille.

“Eden. What is it?” read the file. “It is the culmination of human ingenuity. It is the place from before the fall of man. If Eden were to be created again, all humanity would celebrate before the culling.”

That was it. I imagined that I would have to keep beating levels of the dungeon to find out more. But what really worried me was the mention of a “culling.” If that meant what I thought it did, we were in for some strange and dangerous things in the future. I logged off and unplugged the flash drive, slipping it into my pocket. It was time to check in on the curling auxiliary team. I went across campus and entered the club room.

Alice was sleeping on a couch covered in newspapers and paint splotches. She did not wake up when I entered the room.

I walked up to her and sat down next to her head. She stayed asleep. I waited for a minute more, enjoying the silence. Then I shook her shoulder.

“Wake up,” I said.

Alice stirred, sitting up, revealing a pressure mark on her cheek. I grinned.

“What?” said Alice.

“Your face,” I said.

Alice took out her smartphone and looked at herself. “Ew. How long was I out?”

“You were asleep when I got here,” I said.

Alice sighed. “The rest of the crew has the day off,” she said. “Did you get the message?”

“Um,” I said. I checked my history. Yes, I did receive the message. I had just been too preoccupied to notice it.

Alice stood up. “Well, since we’re here we might as well work on something. I was wondering. Do you think you’d be able to create a single-crystal superalloy?”

“That’s the holy grail of materials science,” I said. “There’s no way I’d be able to do that.”

Alice rooted around in a bin and pulled out a dusty volume. “Not if this book has anything to say about it,” she said. “This is an ancient tome I managed to acquire not too long ago. If you can decipher what it says we may be able to unlock the secrets to a superalloy.”

“Do you know how valuable that would be?” I said. “Only major world governments know how to create the stuff. If a bunch of college kids manage to outsmart the government, with all its resources, there is no telling what would happen.”

Alice placed the book on an empty table. “Take a look at it anyways,” she said. “See what you can figure out. It didn’t cost me any more than ten bucks.”

“Where did you find it?” I said.

“An old antiques shop near campus,” said Alice. “Nothing special. I think whoever sold it to them didn’t know what they had in their possession.”

“You’ve already looked through it,” I said.

“Sure,” said Alice. “But I only understood half of it. I assumed you, being Reguis Alnum, would be able to parse the jargon.”

“Well you found the right person I guess,” I said. I took the book and turned it in my hand. It was thick, leatherbound, and with a title that read Gifts of a Mechanical Nature. I looked at it under the light. The leather was well-worn and covered with several stains.  I held it against my chest. “I’ll deal with this when I get back home,” I said.

“That’s right,” said Alice. “You don’t live in the dorms.”

“Speaking of which, I think it’s about time for me to go to my last night class and then get home.”

“Sure thing,” said Alice. “And next time you catch me sleeping here, please wake me up faster. I find it embarrassing that I was asleep with a club member in the room.”

I chuckled. “Well. See you then.”

“Bye,” said Alice.

I took my last class of the day and returned home. When I arrived at the door, something smelled good. I opened the door and entered the house. Rei was in the kitchen cooking dinner.

“Smells good,” I said.

Rei waved a ladle at me. “You need to be more careful,” she said. “I have a bad feeling about your involvement with the Forthier’s Club case.”

I sighed, sitting down at the table. “Don’t worry. I won’t make any stupid mistakes.”

“And besides,” said Rei, “You have enough work piled on you without that stupid case.”

I shrugged. “You never know. I could be saving the world. But first. Have you ever heard of something called Eden?”

“You mean from the Bible?” said Rei. “No, I don’t particularly believe +

in that.”

“I wasn’t asking about the biblical Eden,” I said. “I was asking about the name of, well, something that the cultists we fought before were trying to bring about.”

“Nope,” said Rei. “No idea what you’re talking about. You’ll have to educate me.”

“Well, the cultists we fought on the Pearlash estate were trying to awaken an ancient god, right?”

“Yeah,” said Rei, bringing food to the table. A delicious chicken pot pie. She really was a good cook. She set the food down and took a seat. “They were trying to prevent something or other. A bunch of bunk.”

“Who knows, really,” I said. “But here’s the thing. That flash drive I found underneath the lake. I opened it and it was booby trapped.”

“Seriously? Did you get hurt?”

“No, thankfully, but I did get put into a pretty bad situation,” I said. “I was forced to fight inside of a virtual reality dungeon where I would have died in real life had I failed.”

“Wow,” said Rei. “How does that work?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “All I know is that I managed to escape.”

Rei served herself some food. “Then you’re fine,” she said.

“The thing is,” I said, “I am planning on going back there. I’m going to need some help though. I believe that the system will let multiple people in at the same time.”

“And you want me to be there with you?” said Rei.

“Of course,” I said. “You’re the best combat mage the world has ever seen.”

“You flatter me,” said Rei. “But whatever. I smell adventure, and I am not one to let that by me.” She grinned. “I’ll fight this battle with you.”

“I’ll need your assistance bringing Tetra and Jade in on this, as well as any number of the student council members.”

Rei took a bite of food. “I’ll do my best,” she said. “I mean, even if it’s a world where you really can die, there’s an element of fun to that whole thing.”

“Well, I’m not planning on doing it because it’s fun,” I said. “I just want to know what Eden is and why it involves a culling.”

“And I’m with you,” said Rei. She pointed her fork at me. “Don’t do anything stupid. Don’t go back there until you know who’s coming with you.”

“Deal,” I said, and served myself some food.