Chapter 87: Can’t Lose (1/2)

“I think I’ve found something,” Humphrey called out and the others moved over to join him.

“Look at this,” Humphrey said, pointing to the wall. “See how the mould has grown in the crack between bricks, all the way down this line?”

“Secret door?” Jason asked.

“That’s what I’m thinking,” Humphrey said. They glanced at each other with mirrored grins.

“Let me take a look,” Clive said. He started drawing in the air with his finger, a magic circle began appearing in the air, traced out in glowing, golden lines. When he was done, the circle vanished and runes started glowing on the wall, in the shape of a door.

“There you have it,” Clive said.

“Nice one, Clive,” Jason said. “How do we open it up?”

Clive looked over the runes, then reached out to touch several in quick succession. He stepped back as a section of the wall opened out, making ripples in the water. They all stepped into the room beyond, which looked to be some kind of book repository. Unfortunately, most of the room’s contents had been taken by rot. There was a breach to open earth in one of the walls, exposing the room to untold years of destructive moisture.

“This is a real shame,” Clive said as they started looking around.

“I’m seeing a lot of residual magic,” Humphrey said, picking up the leather cover of a book whose pages had long since turned to wet pulp.

“Me too,” Clive said. “I’m guessing these were all skill books.”

“Would have been worth a fortune, intact,” Humphrey said.

“It also might have given us some idea of who inhabited this complex,” Clive said. “Sometimes a storage room like this will keep the most important items sealed away, so there may still be something to find.”

They searched through long-rotted shelves until Humphrey uncovered a group of metal boxes. Three of the five had been breached, but two looked to be still intact. They were large enough that each could contain several skill books.

”We shouldn't open them here,” Clive said. ”The contents are definitely old and may be fragile. I have tools back at the Magic Society that would let me open them more carefully.”

“Sounds good,” Jason said. “Bag them for later and we’ll go find this adventurer.”

Clive carefully lifted the boxes with Humphrey’s help and stowed them in his storage space.

“I’m a bit worried about the state we’ll find this adventurer in,” Jason said as they left the training hall and its hidden storeroom behind. “What if he’s just been eaten and all we find is his badge inside a monster.”

“Then that’s what we bring back,” Humphrey said.

They continued exploring the flooded and debris-filled lower level. Rather than continue on through the filthy, icy water, Clive was now sitting atop his tortoise familiar.  Not long after leaving the training hall, something came shambling slowly toward them.

“Zombies?” Humphrey said. “How can there be zombies?”

There were dead bodies making a slow, stumbling path in their direction, looking like skeletons stuffed with mud. Humphrey lunged forward, using his smaller sword in the confines of the tunnel. He still made short work of the animate corpses. Clouds of mist rose off them as Humphrey cut them to pieces.

“Why wouldn’t there be zombies?” Jason asked as Humphrey walked back to them, coughing from the zombie mist. “Honestly, I’m surprised it took them this long to show up in a place like this.”

“The delta is flush with vital energy,” Clive explained. “The water coming out of the astral space that feeds the river is full of it. All that life-force prevents undead monsters from manifesting anywhere in the delta.”

“Then how are there zombies here?” Humphrey asked, still coughing.

“You don’t sound so good,” Jason said. He held his hand in front of Humphrey and chanted a spell.

“Feed me your sins.”

You have cleansed all instances of [Corpse Fungus] from [Human].

“Corpse Fungus?” Jason asked.

“What’s that?” Humphrey spluttered as he escaped the cloud.

“It’s a fungus that uses corpses to propagate itself,” Clive said. “It takes over a corpse, makes it ambulate like a zombie, then blows spores over any living creature it comes across. Not a zombie at all; just a regular dead body being moved about.”

“What do those spores do?” Humphrey asked.

“They grow inside you,” Clive said. “Kill you, eventually, but there’s plenty of time to find a healer or an alchemist. If you don’t have Jason on hand.”

They waited for the spore cloud to settle before continuing on, Jason cleansing Clive and Humphrey again, just in case. They followed the tracking stone, closing in on the dead adventurer’s badge. It led them to the most ruined part of the complex, where large sections of brickwork had been torn out of the walls, mud encroaching on the rooms and tunnels. At the end of another large hall, all the brickwork from the back wall was gone, with what looked like a giant, burrowed tunnel beyond.

“What needs a hole that big to get around?” Humphrey asked.

“Nothing good,” Clive said.

They set off down the earthen tunnel, still knee-deep in water. It didn’t seem to bother Onslow, with Clive riding on his back, or Jason, who walked along the surface. Humphrey was left to trudge unhappily through water and mud. The tunnel turned out to be fairly short, breaking back into another room of the complex. It was another large hall, very much demolished. In addition to the breach they entered through, much of the brickwork had been torn out. In its place, recessed alcoves looked like they had been dug out by claws, each one stuffed with a dead creature. Most were swamp creatures, although there were a few dead people as well.

“This one,” Clive said, tracking stone in hand. He led them to one of the bodies, an elf in tattered armour. Jason took a casket from his inventory, supplied to him by the Adventure Society.

Objective complete: Retrieve the remains of your fellow adventurer 1/1.

While he and Clive placed the body inside, Humphrey was looking around with a concerned expression.

“We should take it and go,” Humphrey said. “Fast.”

“What is it?” Jason asked. The contract wasn’t just to retrieve the body but also kill the monster. If Humphrey wanted to bail out, it was probably bad.

“A swamp-dwelling monster whose appearance could be mistaken for a wyrm, burrows deep into the earth and builds elaborate larders to fill with prey,” Humphrey said, and Clive’s eyes went wide.

“Yes, we should go,” he agreed. “Now.”

Jason looked down as a ripple of water came from the corner of the room, spreading over the water that covered the floor. It suddenly occurred to him that he had no idea if all the water was knee-deep. Something bulged up from the surface in the corner of the room. Water poured off its huge mound of a body as it rose up from a submerged tunnel. The creature was a brown, fleshy mass, with five serpentine necks ending in heads like that of a snake, if snakes had a lot more teeth.

“Marsh hydra,” Humphrey said breathlessly.

None of them had felt its aura approach, but now it washed over them with bronze-rank strength. It moved to block them from the tunnel they had entered through. Its thick legs ended in webbed claws poorly-suited for land movement. Humphrey could have escaped, but seeing Clive and Jason would be cut off, he moved away from the tunnel to join them. The creature, apparently satisfied at boxing them in, eyed them patiently with its five heads.

“Marsh hydras heal fast,” Humphrey said. “Combined with bronze rank toughness, our only chance is that you can pile up enough afflictions to kill it, Jason. Clive and I will try and distract it so you can get close.”

“No need for close,” Jason said. “I’ve got some new tricks; just keep it off me and I’ll get it done.”

Four tree-trunk legs supported the fleshy mound of the hydra’s body, the long necks rising off it like trees on a hill. The creature lumbered towards them and Humphrey went to meet it. Clive patted Onslow on the shell and pulled a long staff from his storage space. It had a large, clear crystal set into the end, and vibrant red-orange runes that shone like fire carved down the full length. Aiming it at the hydra like a gun, a blast of flaming energy launched out, striking one of the hydra’s heads. The runes on the staff dimmed as the struck head shrieked. Its skin was blackened, but the damage appeared superficial.

Jason slit the back of his hand with his wristband razor, sending leeches splashing into the water. They quickly made their way across the room to crawl up the hydra’s trunk legs and swarm over its body.

[Sanguine Horror] has inflicted [Bleeding] on [Marsh Hydra].[Marsh Hydra] has resisted [Bleeding].[Bleeding] does not take effect.[Sanguine Horror] has inflicted [Leech Toxin] on [Marsh Hydra].[Marsh Hydra] has resisted [Leech Toxin].[Leech Toxin] does not take effect.[Sanguine Horror] has inflicted [Necrotoxin] on [Marsh Hydra].[Marsh Hydra] has resisted [Necrotoxin].[Necrotoxin] does not take effect.

“That’s not good,” Jason muttered. Even with his aura that penalised resistances, almost every affliction his leeches piled on was shrugged-off by the bronze-rank monster. Fortunately, Colin offered both quality with quantity, and some of the afflictions were getting through. Jason followed up with spells.

“Your fate is to suffer.”

Spell [Inexorable Doom] has inflicted [Inexorable Doom] on [Marsh Hydra].[Marsh Hydra] has resisted [Inexorable Doom].[Inexorable Doom] does not take effect.

Jason cast the spell a second and third time, each resisted.

“I’m going to need some time,” he called out.

Jason would have liked to toss Humphrey his dagger, which inflicted poison and ignored bronze-rank resistances. Humphrey hardly had time to switch out weapons, however, and trading the enormous sword that was barely holding its own for a small dagger would likely get him killed.

Humphrey’s huge sword, dragon-scale armour and incredible strength were a terror to iron-rank monsters, but they were barely keeping him alive as heads the size of his torso snapped at him. Even his strongest attack, the unstoppable force, was significantly more stoppable against the power of the bronze-rank hydra. Only the added attention of Clive and his familiar allowed Humphrey to hold out. Through their combined efforts, Humphrey was finally able to cleave off one of the heads.

”Watch out for the head growing back,” Clive called out, but to his surprise, there was no sign of it doing so. From what he had read about the creature, its heads should grow back fast enough to see it happening.

[Marsh Hydra] has regenerated enough health to negate [Bleeding].[Leech Toxin] has been consumed to reapply [Bleeding] on [Marsh Hydra].

In the meantime, Jason was casting spell after spell.

“Your fate is to suffer.”

Spell [Inexorable Doom] has inflicted [Inexorable Doom] on [Marsh Hydra].

“Yes!”

With inexorable doom in place and the leeches making slow but constant progress, the afflictions would stack up. Jason raised his hand again and cast one of his new spells.

“Carry the mark of your transgressions.”

Spell [Castigate] has inflicted [Sin] on [Marsh Hydra].[Marsh Hydra] has resisted [Sin].[Sin] does not take effect.Spell [Castigate] has inflicted [Mark of Sin] on [Marsh Hydra].[Marsh Hydra] has resisted [Mark of Sin].[Mark of Sin] does not take effect.