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Chapter 2 - Spelunking
🕑 Added 2023-10-26 17:09:08 +0000 UTCLogan Specter held up his arm straight to give the three of them light from his [Enchanted] ring. It was the wooden one on his pinky, which was just for a light enchantment.
“Yup,” Kat said, coming up next to Logan to peer down. “That’s a big gorge alright.”
“You guys think you can make the jump?” Logan asked.
Balmer came up to them and blew out air when he saw the dark abyss below them. The ledge on the otherside was at least a foot higher than where they were standing and there was a good eight feet of distance.
Kat scoffed and pushed Logan aside. She took a few steps back and ran towards the ledge.
“Huh!”
She made a wide, high jump with arms up in the air. The grabbed the edge of the ledge on the other side. Her other foot tumbled down and for a moment it looked like she would fall. Balmer took an urgent step forward, but controlled himself, once he saw Kat was clear.
She turned and beamed with a wide grin, shielding her eyes from the light with a hand. “Your turn Felix.”
Logan chuckled to himself. Kat had started calling Balmer that last week.
Balmer gave a slight smile, which Logan noted. He took his steps back slowly. A few more than Kat had taken. But Felix Balmer was nothing if not careful. To the young ex-agent’s credit, he didn’t hesitate, but he did let out a chaotic scream as he jumped.
His class carried him up easily. Logan wasn’t one to feel class-jealousy, but damn it must feel good to be Balmer sometimes.
He soared through the air in an even more uncanny way than Michael Jordan. [Phantom] made him a graceful mover, like a ballet dancer or a fencer. A supernatural fencer, which was pretty much what Balmer was. He had given the wooden sword to agent Foraletti, who had a [Swordsman] class.
Now Balmer sported a darkmetal rapier, which hung at a leather belt by his side. It had a neat little [Enchantment] Logan had worked hard on. See, they had noticed that only Logan could activate [Enchantments] at will, such as Logan’s shieldwatch.. Other people could use enchanted tools with a passive enchantment or something with a condition, like a flashbang, but they couldn’t use active enchantments, like Logan.
That was a shame, because Logan had wanted to craft a rapier that could extend its reach when needed. That would make it a seriously hard weapon to fight against. But since Balmer couldn’t use such a weapon, Logan had made a blade which extended half a foot every time it was thrust or slashed with. The thin rapierblade would stretch like rubber and then bounce back when it was drawn towards the user. It was a fine weapon and Logan had to admit that Balmer used it well.
Logan much more preferred the zweihander, Tumor would generate when needed. So far they hadn’t needed to use their weapons during this delve.
Logan needed to take no steps back. He simply bent his knees and let the Armor blast him off the ground. He jumped over Kat and Balmer who had made him room to jump in vain, landing five feet beyond the ledge.
“Showoff,” Kat said.
Logan grinned. Guilty as charged.
They had just entered the so called second tier of the ruins of the First Folk. The first tier was the one with the floating Numa constructs and LED-christmas lights at the seams of the floors and sometimes ceilings. Logan suspected those had been the living spaces of the most primitive iteration of the First Folk’s culture. They had built underground to escape Levemoth, but they had not dug deep enough…
And so the second layer of their civilization opened up when you went down a few floors. There were some straggler Levespawns lurking around, but generally nothing the three of them couldn’t handle. But there was also nothing particularly valuable in the upper floors.
While the Dorves didn’t frequently have operations in the first floors, which left a Numa construct with energy here and there, it wasn’t like they could use the constructs either.
Logan had debated the matter with the settlement. Logan himself wanted to use the Numa from the constructs to help people level. They didn’t need to bring anything made with Numa out of the ruins, but they could definitely benefit from people powerleveling. However since it wasn’t sure whether Levemoth would or would not notice such activities, it was better to be safe than sorry. Especially so with what had happened with the river camp.
Logan sighed, thinking of his father, as they traversed the dark corridors of crumbled stone and old moss. It felt wrong to admit, but they were better off without his father. He had always been making questionable choices when it came to ethics, but he had gone too far, risking people’s lives. Despite himself, Logan was still worried and even missed the old badger on some level. Still, everyone was better off without his father.
[Are you sure, Logan?]
“It’s complicated, Tumor.”
Logan’s two companions gave him a look, but they were used to hearing half-conversations with Logan and his AI.
[I for one am grateful to our progenitor. Wait a minute. Malcolm Specter created us both. Does that mean we are… brothers?]
Logan chuckled at that. “I’m the handsome one, you’re the smart one, right?”
In the white light of Logan’s light source, Kat quirked an eyebrow. “What kind of conversation are you having exactly?”
“Shh,” Logan said. “It’s top secret.”
Kat leaned in an shouted in Logan’s ear. “I’m sure you’re more handsome than we can even imagine, Tumor!”
“Don’t shout, fool,” Balmer admonished her. “What if there’s fiends?”
Kat shrugged. “Then we’ll deal with them.”
Balmer tsked but said nothing.
“Tumor says hi,” Logan said as they turned a corner, Balmer keeping a hand on his sword.
In fact, Tumor hadn’t said anything. His chirpy tone had snuffed out like a candle in the wind. Logan couldn’t be absolutely certain, but he thought Tumor had gone sullen. He wanted to ask why, but immediately at having the thought, he could feel Tumor withdraw further. That was clear. His buddy didn’t want to talk about it, and Logan wasn’t about to press the matter.
It’s hard to wrap my mind around the thought that he has feelings.
[And what if I do?]
Logan sighed. He was a person who wore his heart on his sleeve, as Freya liked to say. He didn’t have anything to hide, which in Logan’s observation made him a rare person. But. But, it was still very hard to give up the privacy of his own thoughts.
[Sorry. I am glad you are making an effort to reconcile with your inner conflicts to provide me with optimized companionship.]
Logan laughed. “Optimized companionship?”
Logan liked to imagine the AI sputtering.
[Well I… What I mean is…]
“You’re very eloquent for a being with like a gazillion associations in your brain and the command of like fifty languages.”
[Fifty three. Also, shut up. Emotions are complicated. Especially for a person who has never had them. Have you seen a two year old try to regulate their anger? I say I am doing a great job. Not to mention that I am using YOUR brain to interface. And your brain, while it has its perks, certainly does not have a “gazillion” points of association.]
“Ouch,” Logan said. “Ok, you can go back to brooding.”
[Thaaaank you.]
Logan led his companions along the pitch dark corridors in silence from thereon. It was a good thing the banter ended, as they heard movement somewhere beyond the scope of light. They gave each other serious looks and nodded. There was definitely a Levespawn ahead.
Most of them were manageable. None of them had any issues with the scythe-fiends, beetles or one-eyed cats that were common. Even the trolls and snakes were easy to deal with if Logan wasn’t otherwise occupied. On a good day Kat and Balmer could take on a troll together.
But there were nasty types too. The giant snakes were the most common of the genuine threats. If they attacked Logan, that was fine. His Armor could take the brute force of their constriction as well as their bites.
But if the snakes wrapped around either of his companions, they only had a few seconds before bones would crack. They’d had a few close calls, but the worst of them ended up with Balmer snapping three ribs and a shoulder. Nothing their [Healer] couldn’t handle, but moving an injured Balmer back to the camp would suck, especially if it meant leaving empty-handed.
“Let me go ahead,” Logan whispered. He got no arguments back.
Tumor made the Armor thin from his shoulders and formed a helmet for Logan. Logan didn’t like the thing, but helmets were like seatbelts. Totally uncool, but they saved lives.
Logan came to the end of the corridor, which opened into a large room. He waited there with the walls of the corridors giving him protection while he peered into the large room, raising his hand higher to give him light.
There was a shape in the corner other side of the room. It was moving up and down as if breathing. Logan shone the light towards it. Turning its hunched and muscular back it looked at Logan and snarled.
