Rune Seeker

“Grandfather is… a person?” Hiral asked, the question clear on everybody else’s faces.

“Of course he is!” Dr. Benza said. “Though not for much longer, if we can get there in time. He possesses a unique and very important skill to the success of our plan. We must reach him before he’s killed.”

Dynamic Quest

Get the Spear of Clouds to its rightful resting place while protecting the key researchers.

(And try not to die).

Okay, another escort-type quest plus a delivery. Bound to be the next Mid-Boss too.

As if the PIMP was reading his thoughts, a second window popped up.

Dynamic Quest: Update

Abomination Defeated: 0/1

Weapon of Legend Delivered: 0/1

I’m almost nervous it actually told us how many Abominations there are. And I bet that “Surviving Researchers” number can drop, so we’ll have to be careful.

“Everybody got the quest windows?” Seena asked quietly into the party chat. “Left, Right, I want you sticking close to the NPCs. Yanily, Sis, keep an eye out as well.”

“Got it, boss,” Yanily said, and the others quickly echoed his words.

“We should probably get moving,” Right said. “We can talk as we go. Which way?”

Dr. Benza pointed down the tunnel Hiral stood next to.

“What’s the other way?” Hiral asked as the others started in his direction.

“The tower,” Dr. Benza said. “Which reminds me… I have a solution to your earlier query. I’ll explain it as we move.”

“My earlier…? How to put the Fallen back to sleep?” Hiral asked, his heart speeding up in anticipation.

"Yes.” Dr. Benza shuffled into the lead, Hiral falling in immediately behind him.

The rest of the party trailed after, with Right helping out Fenil, who was now awake but still groggy. A healing potion had gone a long way to clearing his head, but he still wasn’t at a hundred percent.

“What do we need to do?” Hiral asked. He needed to get this answer before anything else happened.

“Well, it’s simple, really,” Dr. Benza said, but then the whole island shook again.

The ground under their feet bucked as everybody got thrown first left and then right, bouncing from wall to wall. Even after the initial quake, the floor beneath their feet vibrated ominously.

“What was that?” Seeyela asked.

“The end of that island,” Hiral said. “Just three left now. Keep going. And talk faster, please, Doctor.”

“Of course. Follow me.” Dr. Benza jogged ahead down the narrow hall, one hand on the wall for balance even as the aftershocks dispersed. “The problem with the waking Fallen is the plaque buildup in the crystals under the tower.”

“Yeah, you mentioned that,” Hiral said. “Did you figure out a way to clean them out?”

“No, that’s impossible. We used the term buildup, but really it’s more of a corruption or decay. The actual membrane of the crystal is deteriorating to the point the energy can’t flow through it anymore.”

“That doesn’t sound good…”

“It’s not, but it does make the solution significantly easier,” Dr. Benza said, turning left at the first intersection they reached. Barely a few feet later, he began down what looked like an incredibly long set of stairs. “Watch your step. If you lose your footing, we’re all going to be falling for a very long time.”

“How far down do these stairs go?” Seena asked.

“Miles,” Dr. Benza answered. “There are several landings for connecting tunnels, but I wouldn’t count on them if you build up a good head of steam rolling down the steps.”

“Noted.”

“So, Doctor, the corrupted crystals?” Hiral prompted.

“Sorry,” Seena mumbled for just his ears behind him.

“As soon as we figured out the crystals were being physically damaged, we immediately stopped looking for ways to reverse the process,” Dr. Benza picked up. “We can’t clean or repair them, which only leaves one option.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Replace them,” Hiral immediately said, but then his mind went to the crystal veins he’d tried to repair back in the Asylum—that hadn’t gone so well. “But, how? The type of crystal used for the weapons and equipment back there won’t be able to stand up to the energy poured through them.”

At the question, Dr. Benza actually slowed to a stop on the stairs and looked back to peer at Hiral. “That’s correct, but how do you know what? Are you sure you don’t want to be my assistant?”

“He’s already spoken for,” Li’l Ur said from Seena’s shoulder behind Hiral. “After he dies,” the little lich amended.

“Stop sounding so eager for that,” Hiral muttered, but he turned his attention on the doctor. “My PIM class gives me some insight into crystal, as well as an ability to mold it. I’ve worked with it a bit before, and it didn’t stand up well to the energy going through it.”

“An ability to mold the crystal itself. Like clay?” Dr. Benza asked, and Hiral nodded at him. With the question seemingly answered, the doctor turned and started down the stairs again, picking up the conversation at the same time. “You are correct in that normal crystal won’t be up to the task.”

“Where do you get the crystal used there now?” Hiral asked.

“It’s grown naturally from the island into the bottom of the tower,” Dr. Benza said. “Unfortunately or fortunately, where the normal air touches the crystal—instead of the energy-saturated earth of the island itself—is where we see the decay. This growing process, in preparation for connecting the towers, is one of the reasons it took us years to get to this point in the project, along with the dungeon stabilization. For all the good that did us.”

“Can we just grow more?” Hiral asked.

“No,” Dr. Benza said, his head shaking as he continued down the stairs. “It would take too long, and you’ll need to trim the decayed crystal roots as you go, or nothing will really change. As you said, you need to literally replace them.”

“If we can’t use the same crystal as the weapons, what are our choices?” Hiral asked.

“The crystal we used to build the equipment in those storerooms was designed to utilize solar energy, not to hold or transport it. However, in the vault, we have a large supply of exactly the kind of crystal you’ll need.”

Crystal designed to hold solar energy? Wait…

“Is this what you’re talking about?” Hiral asked, pulling one of the currency chips they’d gotten from the dungeons out of his Interspatial Ring. Gentle, consistent light bathed the stone hallway around them, filling in the gaps left by the intermittent illumination.

For the second time, Dr. Benza stopped to look at Hiral. “Have you been to the vault?”

“Uh, we were given some of these for… testing purposes,” Hiral quickly said. “You know, to see how well they absorbed solar energy from the monsters we defeated.”

“I really need to reiterate the meaning of need-to-know to some people,” Dr. Benza grumbled, continuing down the seemingly endless stairs.

How far had they already gone? Hundreds of steps? Thousands? Still, even at this pace… things were taking too long. Was there something he could do? Part of his mind mulled over the problem while Dr. Benza continued at a more normal volume.

“Anyway. Yes, with those crystals, you can replace the veins under the tower. One at a time, mind you. If you do them all at once, the Fallen will definitely wake up. And be careful. The decayed crystal is quite fragile compared to its normally nearly indestructible density. One wrong move could shatter them all.”

“Noted,” Hiral said.

“Can you do it?” Seena asked from behind him. “Replace the crystals so the Fallen stay asleep?”

“I think so,” Hiral said. “We have lots of this crystal currency, even without the vault. I don’t know if it’s enough to replace all of the roots for all eleven Fallen, but even if we can do a few right away…”

“We can buy enough time to go back to the surface to run more dungeons, and get more currency,” Seena said, finishing his sentence.

“Exactly!”

“Glad to see you two are still finishing each other’s thoughts,” Yanily said. “Very cute and all, but, uh, any chance we’re getting close to the bottom? We can’t do anything while we’re stuck on this staircase.”

“Good point,” Hiral said, heat rising up his neck slightly. “Dr. Benza, how much further?”

“Half a mile,” the doctor said. “Good thing I’ve been working on my cardio.”

Half a mile? Okay, no. This is going to take hours. Time to be a little reckless.

“I’ve got a way to get us to the bottom a bit… faster,” Hiral said, already bracing for the comments from his friends.

Instead, however, Seena tapped him on the shoulder. “Do whatever you’ve got to do.”

“Everybody get close,” Hiral said, taking a breath and streaming energy into his Runes of Gravity, Decrease, Expansion, Rejection, and Sealing.

Kind of like he’d done to himself back in the Forge of Ur’Thul when he’d needed to pass through a long, narrow tunnel, Hiral reduced the hold of gravity on himself and the others. Taking it one step further with the interaction of his other runes, he expanded this into a tube of weightlessness. Rejectionseparated it from the tunnel, while Sealing created something akin to a long bubble with them inside of it.

“I can already tell this is either going to be wildly exciting or unbelievably terrifying,” Yanily said.

“Pretty sure it’ll be both,” Seeyela said quietly.

“Hold on,” Hiral said, pushing more energy into his Rune of Separation. Just like that, the bubble existed as if it were in a vacuum, concepts like friction and physics losing their hold.

“Hold on to what?” Dr. Benza asked from the front of the bubble-tube, his feet floating above the steps.

“Your stomach,” Hiral said, another thread of solar energy into his Rune of Rejection blasting them down the stairwell so fast even their screams couldn’t keep up with them.